The Oldest Child of Sin
by Person With Many Aliases
Summary: (O.C. fic) I...tire of this.....It needs to end soon....I need to be free....Perhaps today....I will be free..... [Complete]
1. Theater of Simple Interest

The Guilty Gear Series is property of Hideyuki Abe, Daisuke Ishiwatari, and Sammy Corporation. Other Major Characters in the story are property of author "Person with many aliases"

Plea of Mercy: If I screw this up, please don't get all angry with me, I did my research of the series through a boatload movies I downloaded and the Internet. Yes, I never played the game, so sue me. So if the characters are a bit OOC, just tell me.

***************************

He was tired of it all, the abominable waiting, the useless hoping, and that constant irritation of telling himself "perhaps today". He should have just done this earlier. The man then sagged downwards farther into his plush chair from the self-inflicted pessimism.

The room was covered in shadows, produced by the fireplace deep in one wall, as it was the only source of lighting, yet it still gave off a cozy atmosphere. Unfortunately it was all lost on the man. Positioned on a table along side him was a small radio that was quietly playing Iron Maiden. Along with a few other bits and pieces, this made up the all of the legal property of the man. One of the illegal devices owned by the man was held in his hand, which was dangling lifelessly over the armrest of the chair he has been seated in. Finally raising the arm in a rather stiff, zombie like motion, the fireplace reflects the metal of the device so that it is finally visible.

Handgun.

After a seemingly eternity for the man, the gun is in position with its giving end positioned in front of the man's right temple. The flames reflected of the man's cold brown eyes while he waits for his finger to seal his fate.

      It doesn't come. Once again foul luck strikes, as the man is apparently not the suicidal type. He now waits patiently for a suitable excuse for not to pull the trigger. The radio answers the man's call with an important announcement.

"…This Gear is functioning properly, even though its activities should be inhibited by its lack of leadership. There are no signs of abnormalities or physical damage. It is also noted that no civilians have been harmed, either intentionally or accidentally. We have made several attempts to eliminate the Gear, but due to its tremendous combat capabilities, we have been unsuccessful. The number of casualties has yet to be confirmed. We are currently keeping the Gear under surveillance…" States a monotonous voice, over the radio. For the man, he only picks out the words of the speech that is important only to him.

Gear. 

Functioning properly. 

Eliminate. 

Tremendous combat capabilities. 

Unsuccessful.

Number of casualties.

Under Surveillance.

The flames of the fireplace now reflect of eyes that are now alive. Eyes that reveal a man that is thinking again, formulating. He lowers the weapon.

There is a gear that is very powerful, that is on the run, and people know of its whereabouts. Good Thus thinks the man, who now grunts and pushes himself out of the chair. 

"Perhaps today…"

Forgetting his original plans for the day, he moves around the room with great energy, unlike before. He opens a drawer visible in the dark, only to him. He counts the number of small metal bars in the drawer along with the one inside the handgun he is holding.

Four clips, good enough.

He gathers the Handgun, the matching clips, medical supplies, and some other things that the man deems useful for his little outing, and gathers them in a sack. He dons a cape over his shoulders and fixes a strange hat over his head. Hoisting his traveling companion over his shoulder he now climbs up a ladder that has been previously hidden in the darkness. Opening the hatch that ends at the top of the ladder, the man slips out of the room and drops the hatch, which sounds off an un-ceremonious 'clang'. He leaves the fireplace to its own matters.

***********************

It was a little while later that the man was to be found inside a bounty office. For the man knew that if the news of the gear was public, then those loser bounty hunters- those people always talked big, then ran away like spineless pussies in front of gears, or dragons- would be knowing the same stuff the IPF did too, and it was easier to check up bounty lists rather than ask the IPF. Everybody nowadays knew that.

In the light of the sun we see that he is dressed in completely green attire, from the boots to the cape to the hat. The hat itself in fact rather looks like something the stereotypical spell caster or wizard would wear, bent at a backwards angle and clearly showing the signs of age and being worn often. A bit of brunette hair can also be seen poking out from under the hat at some point or the other. It is also in the outside world that he has a name too, Jeremy Colt. Sure, it was an old fashioned name compared to the names of today, but Jeremy was always an old fashioned guy.

Old fashioned in too many ways, at that Jeremy quietly mused at his own personal sick joke, while a small smirk unconsciously appeared on his mouth. 

Snapping back to reality, he looked over the bounty poster regarding the 'Second Justice' as everyone had taken to naming it. Vague physical description, crap. Little solid facts on the gear, more crap. In fact the only useful thing on this paper was the last reported definite sighting of the gear, which was somewhere in France. Jeremy gave quick mental note on that little tidbit. 

In the meanwhile he was overhearing the local gossip from the newbie bounty hunters. From what Jeremy heard, the new gear ran from armed conflict rather than fight. 

A peaceful gear? That's new, Jeremy scoffed quietly to himself, once again lost in his own little world I suppose 'Second Justice' isn't very fitting for our little Gandhi-gear... 

It was then that Jeremy was tossed out of his thoughts a little too violently, when some random man suddenly backed into him. The sounds of mayhem were also in the air. Soon enough the crowd separates into two groups: the spectators on the outside (of which Colt was a part of) and the five people in the middle. One was a woman, and the four others were men who were, frankly, having the living crap kicked out of them. What made this more humorous was not only the four men Jeremy guessed to be bounty hunters being pounded by a woman, but a one-armed woman at that. Well, she had one eye too, but Jeremy had already seen people fight with one eye only, but with one ARM, no that was new. Had this entire event been portrayed on a television, Jeremy would have been laughing his head off, instead he just looked impressed. After the short and extremely one-sided scuffle ended, with the four men beaten on the floor, most everybody then took a step back from the woman. A death glare and her hand at ready by her blade then made everybody back away another step. Jeremy, from among the crowd then took a second, more thorough examination on the woman. Interestingly enough for Colt, the woman is Japanese. 

Figures, I always knew that the Japanese would be the world renowned 'natural ass-kickers', probably the reason why the gears burned their country... snapping back out of his thoughts for the third time of the day, he saw the Japanese woman gone, and some other Japanese guy leaving the office, well, more like prance out...weird. Looking around the crowd again, Colt frowned: everybody still had the 'OMG' look on their faces from the Japanese thing a few seconds before.

For God's sake, you're all bounty hunters, you see all this crap all the time Colt mentally scolded the people around him, then left like he should have, before the whole Japanese thing started. Once outside the building, Jeremy gave a quick once-over of the town he was in before he looked into his map he bought a while back. He was right now at the outskirts of France, which meant that he would have to travel further into the country to get to the place that the Gandhi-gear was last seen. Well, no better time to go than now. 

Jeremy started walking again.


	2. Theater of Tattered Souls

"Hot damn" Jeremy said to no one in particular, like he always did. 

He had finally reached his point of destination after a few good weeks. It probably would have been sooner had he not been forced to take all those detours and end up getting lost, then having been helpfully pointed back onto the right direction, which meant he had to backtrack a bit. He was now situated in front of a small café in the village, while massaging his sore feet that were currently bare of his boots for the moment. Jeremy soon dropped his current task in favor of simply staring placidly into the sky while zoning out once more as he re-assessed the current situation.

A good deal of the village citizens had recently evacuated to God-knows-where. Apparently, a big ass Gear came into the town with intent of wiping it out. Of course it was now dead, and doing an excellent job of stinking up the place, thanks to two extremely lucky bounty hunters. Oh yeah, the Holy Knight guys were here too (Miraculously still functioning properly even though the organization was *this* close to being disbanded altogether). The knights were 'overseeing' and investigating the gear attack on the town. Which basically meant the knights helped themselves to whatever the town offered before the majority of the village people deemed it safe to return. Not that it mattered to Jeremy, he did a bit of a 'shopping trip' himself the moment he entered the village and saw that no one was here. Taking a small break wasn't an option to him when he was extremely close to meeting the Gandhi-Gear. So basically he was in a ghost town that was barely populated by a few of the braver village people and some knights. Yay.

Colt fitted his boots back on, got back up before retrieving a bag of devices and things he decided to bring along with him for his little hike he decided to attempt, then set off. His little jaunt would take him deep into a wood that the Knights suspected the Gandhi-Gear was holed up in, for the knights were here for the same reason he was here as well: for the Gear. Anyways, the rumor of the Gandhi-gear being here, along with that gear attack on the town was proof in itself that the gear *must* be here, since it was also part of the rumor that new Gear was those kinds that could control other Gears. Of course Colt would be the one to get to the Gandhi-Gear first, since the knights were nothing but rules and protocols: it would take forever for a correct order saying, "enter the woods and kick ass" to pop up. Yay some more. Besides, it's not like they can-

"Are you going to the woods?" a young, but mature, female voice broke the silence along with Jeremy's over-length line of thought. 

By the time he had his thoughts interrupted, he already reached the village perimeter that faced the small forest. Jeremy then swiveled around to look over to his inquirer. Obviously one of the braver village people, for one thing. As guessed, a young woman of about… 20-ish. Wearing a plain old white dress with a bit of a plaid design in the front that reached down to her ankles. She was probably cute enough to catch a few men. The interesting thing was that she wasn't from around here, as she was obviously Asian in descent. Of course now that everyone was emigrating constantly from one place to another, no surprise there, not unlike before in the old days when everybody just-

"Excuse me, did you hear me?" 

Colt snapped out of his little world once more. Scolding himself for being too longwinded, he replied with a rather cheerful smile, "Sorry, bad habit. I seem to zone out much too often. You were asking?" Good thing she was polite.

"I was just saying, are going into the woods?"

"Yeah, actually I was going to, how'd you guess?"

The woman giggled a bit "Ha, it's too obvious not to see. Of course it's new to see somebody who's not a bounty hunter heading into the forest for once"

'not a bounty hunter'? Shit, don't tell me… Colt's cheerful demeanor was suddenly more artificial, "Bounty Hunters, hmmm? What sort of hunters?"

The lady put a finger to finger to her chin and looked upward while she tried to remember, "Well… not too many actually, just three."

"I see… do you remember what they look like?" Jeremy was now the inquirer.

"Well the first one was a rather large man, he came quite a few weeks ago, rude too. He was carrying a funny looking sword, in fact he looked a lot like those knights around here, with that funny belt buckle he wore. The sword looked like something the knights used too…" While the woman tried to conjure up more memories, Jeremy moved on to other questions.

"When he went into the forest, he did return, right?"

"Sheesh, you already ask even more questions than me"

"Hey, when I get curious, I get curious"

"I suppose… anyways, of course he did return"

"Did he return with extra baggage?"

The lady gave a quirky look, "Of course not, how would that be possible?"

Queue inward sigh of relief now. "You never know"

The woman was silent for little while longer, then suddenly got that look that would have been complemented nicely with a floating light bulb above her head. "But now that you asked that, I suddenly thought of something else similar. You know those two other bounty hunters I mentioned?"

I take that back. "Yeah?"

"Like I said, two bounty hunters entered the woods, a man and a young girl a few days after the first guy, in case you were wondering."

"Uh-huh" Jeremy shook his head lightly.

"So they both entered the woods, but he funny thing was when they came back, a *third* girl was with them" She gave a nod and a wave of the finger in a sort of 'I told you so' way. Colt's surprise was genuine.

"What?"

The lady gave a sympathetic nod, "I know, I thought the same thing too"

"What did this third girl look like? And she didn't come back in handcuffs or anything, did she?"

"No handcuffs there, and she was a frightfully shy girl, had pretty blue hair that suited her nicely. But like I said, very shy, had her head looking at the ground the entire time she and the other people passed through here."

"You know where they were heading to?"

"Yes, they mentioned amongst themselves going to the St. Germain Air Docks."

"You know where it is?"

"Yes, of course. It's on the outside of the village on the west side-"

"Shit! Gotta go now. Bye!" Jeremy moved from asking obscene amounts of 'casual' questions to charging back into the village.

"HEY!" the lady cried out at the rushing figure, who was now a good few blocks a away from her, "WHAT'S ALL THIS BUSINESS ABOUT?"

Jeremy stopped in his tracks momentarily to give the lady a funny look, while wondering if he ever looked up a Guinness world record book, if he would ever find a picture of her face for 'densest person ever'. Wait a second… that's right; Guinness world records don't exist anymore.

"Uh…old friends a such. Bye!" Colt re-continued his rush down the street. Leaving a rather confused girl in the dust.

*************

"Damnit…." Jeremy kicked open the front door of the evacuated house that he decided to crash the night in while he was on his 'shopping trip', and trudged in, dragging his hiking bag in as well. When he reached the air docks, he discovered to his much displeasure, that his bounty hunter opponents had already left the entire country on their own Airship. Having already dropped his bag somewhere, he continued to drag himself through a well-decorated hallway.

"GOD DAMNIT!" Jeremy threw his fist into the wall next to him in a vain attempt to rid himself of the black cloud that loomed over his head. It didn't help when he winced and pulled back his bruised hand and covered it in the other to smother the pain, "FREAK!" Flopping on to the bed, Colt laid there, face down, while letting the black cloud above him grow bigger.

"I WAS THIS CLOSE! *THIS* CLOSE!" He shouted into the bed, rather in a way a child would when he found out he couldn't get that toy after saving up his or her  money for so long, This close…. This close to finding her and having this curse on my soul be removed… damnit, think logically He felt better after hearing the word 'logically' sounded out in his mind. He turned around and thought.

Well, the fact that the Gear-girl (He decided that sounded better than 'Gandhi-Gear') came left here without handcuffs means that the bounty hunters convinced her. The fact they had an Airship means they're rich and the since they didn't turn her in first chance they had, which was here in France, and not in said handcuffs means they're probably not bounty hunters either. What the hell do they want with her? Oh yeah, she looks very human too, since the lady and I *are* calling the Gear-girl a girl. St. Germain Air docks is a public facility…that means…

**************

"Hey" Jeremy, carrying his traveling bag, cried out to the 'boss' of the Air docks while walking up to him. The place was still under control of the Knights, but limited civilian air activity was allowed. Under heavy supervision of the Knights, of course. Bastards.

"Ah, you again. Need a flight this time?" the chunky man in suspenders called back to the hunter of the 'Gear-girl'

Meeting up with him, Jeremy continued, " Uh, yeah… sort of. You know those friends I asked you about?" Jeremy, of course, was substituting 'friends' with 'those assholes that ran off with the Gear-girl'

"Yeah, you only asked me an a hour or so ago"

"Yeah, I forgot" Jeremy rolled his eyes and gave an artificial, but convincing chuckle, "Anyways, do you know where they probably flew off to?"

"Oh yeah, sure I do." The Boss of the Air docks pointed out to one particular length of the horizon, " They headed westward. My best guess is that they're going Spain, probably oh…." The man waved his hand a bit while evaluating the odds, " … most likely Madrid" He nodded to himself in confirmation.

"I see…" Jeremy trailed off his sentence after looking of to the horizon that showed a setting sun he promptly returned to the matter at hand and turned to his companion, "You'll be chartering me a flight to Madrid, Spain"

The fat man gave a sly smile, "Chasing your friends, I see"

Jeremy returned with a smirk, "Indeed"

"When will you be leaving?"

"Now", Jeremy turned on his heel and faced the buildings holding the aircraft and walked in that direction. The fat man looked on in shock before chasing after Colt.

"Hey! Wait!" the chunky boss caught up Jeremy, "You haven't paid yet, and the paper work-"

Jeremy slipped a large wad of bounty-money he had been collected for a while into the fat man's breast pocket, gave it a friendly pat, and continued walking. The now considerably richer man stood there dumbfounded before continuing his protests and following the fleet footed character in front of him.

"Okay, you can do that, but we still have to prepare the ship…"

"How long?"

"Probably a few hours"

Jeremy was unfazed, "That's why you're going to start right now"

"Woah, woah, woah" The fat man held out both his hands and stopped Jeremy, "I can tell your expecting a first class, grade A flight, man. But we can't give you that"

Still unfazed. "Oh?"

"The Holy Order took all my best planes for their transports and such, I can only give you my third-hand planes"

"How long would it take in a third-hand to get to Spain?"

The larger of the two shrugged "About a week…"

Jeremy gave a quirky look, "Why the hell are you arguing? I'm paying you a shit-load of money for a cheap flight. Let's go"

*********************

After a week of surviving on crappy peanuts, sandwiches that tasted remarkably like cardboard, and water that tasted funny, Colt finally made it to Madrid, Spain without any intestinal problems. The moment he checked into his motel room and dropped his bag inside (save the handgun and an extra clip, which he concealed in a holster somewhere in the darkness of the cape he had been wearing), he went out into the city asking the fair citizens asking where his 'friends' went, among other questions. His interrogating of the city led him to an out of the way bar called 'Fallen Angel'. Upon entering the bar, Jeremy found himself in a light crowd, since it wasn't the popular hours for partying. The people here consisted of gossipers and a few bounty hunters, all people being rooted in deep discussion. Seating himself and asking for the ever so simple beer, Jeremy began to pick out the conversations behind him until he got a useful source of talk to listen in on, the victims consisting of two local bounty hunters, both a little red in the face from their alcohol.

"You're shitting me"

"No really, that billion dollar gear was actually here, yesterday night. Believe me, man, I was there", the storyteller pointed a finger out of his folded arms.

"What happened?"

"Well that shit of a Gear came to dance, right?"

The other nodded "Right"

"And did a good job of tricking the people there too, then its tail came out"

"That Gear must have been stupid"

"Yeah, anyways, there was a bit of confusion for a second, then everyone started freaking out… except me, of course"

"Okay"

"So, then the gear showed off its wings and spewed all this bullshit about 'not wanting to hurt us', not that anybody believed it"

"Uh-huh"

"So, there I was, the only bounty hunter in that place. So I decided to do something about it, even if I was unarmed"

"You really are crazy"  
  
"That's why I'm called that", the storyteller, now known as Crazy answered back.

"So what happened?"

Crazy took another swig of whatever he was drinking before he continued; "Now before I did anything, a girl took out an anchor and said she'd defend that piece of shit against anyone who came near"  
  


The listening party gave a strange look, "An anchor?"

"Yeah, come on, don't tell me you don't know about Johnny's crew"

A blank face from the listener.

"Oh come on, Jesus man, how the hell do you expect to be a hunter like me if you don't even know about 'The Jellyfish'?"

"Jeez, sorry man" the listener, revealed newbie hunter shot back in a sarcastic tone.

"Whatever, anyway, I was about to beat the shit outta them both, then Johnny stuck out his sword and said he'd defend the Gear, too"

"Wait, you mean the leader of the Jellyfish was here, too?"

"Of course. He always comes here. Anyways, if I had my sword, I would have kicked all their asses, but I didn't so I had to give up, *that* night. The moment after they all ran away. Heh, bunch of cowards"

The newbie hunter finished the story, "And that's why you're going to surprise 'em today, when they take off"

"Hey!" Crazy and the newbie both turned to face the new voice, whose owner was a man dressed in a lot of green and wore a funny hat.

Crazy responded first, "Yeah?"

"When these Jellyfish guys going to take off?"

Crazy thought for a second before answering, "At three 'o' clock"

Jeremy's face twisted into angered frustration, "SHIT!"

Crazy just raised an eyebrow while the newbie spoke up, "What's the matter? We got plenty of time", Crazy slapped his friend in the shoulder for being stupid enough to think that the man in green was joining their team.

Jeremy frowned, "What the hell? Did that beer get into your sense of time too?", before the two could retaliate, Jeremy turned to the bald man on the other side of the stall, "Hey Bartender, what's the time?"

"Two-Fifty, sir"

Jeremy looked back to his two momentary allies. Both their faces were paper white.

****************

"FASTER!" Crazy shouted back to Jeremy and his friend the newbie. In a time of seven minutes, the trio managed to get to the boundary of the Airfield. Obviously ignoring all moving objects expect the biggest Airship, which was the groups' target.

"HOLY SHIT! *THAT'S* THE MAYSHIP?" Jeremy shouted to the bounty hunter in front of him.

"YEAH! HURRY GUYS, IT'S GOING TO TAKE OFF!" Crazy yelled into the air.

Unfortunately, it already was taking off. The Mayship launched its heavy frame at an incredible speed along the paved runway. While Colt charged madly ahead, the other two decided to call it a day and stopped to catch their breath.

"Jesus…man… how does he do that?" Crazy said through gritted teeth in between weak wheezes of air

Keep going, keep going, keep going Colt shouted to himself while closing the distance between him and the massive steel bird containing his 'prize', Can't give up, must get her. Not when I'm this close… He kept running, despite the fact he lost all feeling his legs and his guts felt like spears were shoved through them. Managing to get along side the vehicle, Colt got in range and used his abilities he had deemed as the 'curse'. Fingers elongated and formed into deep purple talons that reverted back into human flesh and bone where the fingers met the rest of the hand. Throwing himself unto the Airship, Jeremy managed to get a hold unto the vehicle's metal flesh as the talons sunk in. Just in the nick of time, the Mayship left the ground into the safety of the air, unbeknownst of the parasite attached to its tail section.

****************

The only shitty thing about his impulsive action, Jeremy decided to himself as he hung onto the vehicle while 20,000,000 feet in the air and 100-plus miles per hour, was that he left his bags in Spain while he was going to God-knows-where. He also reminded himself that he should workout more often to avoid further 'Spears in stomach' attacks as he so noticed on his marathon run towards the Airship when it was taking off. It was after a good hour and a half of wall crawling, avoiding windows, and making sure he didn't lose his hat, but he finally got himself latched onto the left wing now. Yay.

Jeremy inspected the new surrounding, as hard at it was with the wind blowing in his face. The wing was covered in a good deal of spray painted graffiti, like the crewmembers consisted of a lot of rebellious teens. Colt also noticed that it was in need of a repair job, as the front section was showing a lot the framework amidst the torn steel skin. But no way in-

"Ah-ha" Jeremy Colt said to himself in a small victory as he found an entrance into the ship. A small gun turret jutted out of the horizon of the wing, the kind with the exposed roof, meaning Colt could slip inside, which he did. Jeremy crawled/fell into turret head first, meaning when he was entirely inside; he was in a rather awkward upside down position. Finally getting out of his predicament, he looked around. The room underneath the turret was empty, and was more like a small ready room for gunners with a ladder in the middle leading up to the turret. An area to spend little more that five second in, which was connected to a metal hallway that lead into the core of the ship. Jeremy pulled out his weapon, the handgun, out of its hidden holster then chambered its first round. It was then Colt heard a large 'crash' reverberate through the metal hallway.

"The fuck?" 

Jeremy climbed up the ladder just enough to peek out of the turret to see a large new hole decorating the main hull of the ship. Since there was no explosion and mass destruction following the hole, that meant something with the idea of making permanent damage deep in Mayship, rather than just making holes on the ship. The sound of combat soon echoed down the hallway as well.

"Ah, shit" 

Jeremy jogged down the metal corridor, gun at ready. When something *smart* infiltrates a structure, that means it's here for a very specific reason, other than just hurting stuff, the only specific thing Jeremy could think of at the moment was the Gear-girl. Perfect, competitors for the Gear, veterans at that, judging from the prolonged battle he was hearing. At the end of the corridor was another ladder; at the top was a hatch. Jeremy crawled up the rungs and up to the steel hatch, from which he promptly threw it open and saw the hatch get stuck in a 90-degree position. Colt was about to continue climbing up when a yelp of surprise rung out and something hit the opened hatch, which slammed down on Jeremy's head since he was in the 90-degree range. Falling back down, he clutched his head for a few seconds and moaned before getting back up, which was a challenge since the world was now spinning from the blow to the head. Colt shook his head loose of the remaining cobwebs when he heard a girl's voice from above.

"Don't move!"

Heh, my time for the spotlight. Obviously saying that so they can let me out first Jeremy grinned at the unexpected attention. After successfully climbing up the entire length of the ladder and into the next floor, the moment Jeremy managed to get to his feet he found himself in a regular standoff, with two sides, a hostage, and the ever famous damsel in distress. Amusingly enough, the entire hallway was quiet ever since the hatch bashed his head in. Apart from the quiet whispers behind him, which consisted mostly of:

"Another one?"

Jeremy ignored the silent commotion behind him, more focused on his adversaries in front of him. The first being a young girl in a good deal of orange apparel, face first on the floor. Easily identified as the one who tripped over the metal hatch. Beside her a large anchor lay, identified from Crazy's story as the one who defended the Gear-girl. Luckily, she was still recovering from the tumble, so Jeremy didn't need to deal with her. Further up from her was a woman, wearing the smile of a malicious sly fox on her face, and some red leather that barely covered everywhere else. She wore similar hat to Colt's, apart from the red color as opposed to his green, and the skull faced design. This showed Jeremy from which the 'Another one?' comments stemmed from. The 20th century guitar slung across her back contradicted her clothes and gave some trouble for Colt when he tried to figure out what her *real* occupation was. In the steel grip of the fox-lady's arms was…

Her.

Blue hair. Wings. Tail. Red eyes as well. It was HER. At last! The salvation for Colt's curse that had been carved into his soul, right in front of him. Unfortunately, the fox-lady had one hand gripped hard on the Gear-girl's neck, the fox-lady had her other hand pull one of her captive's arms behind her back. The Gear was weakly tugging on the hand holding onto her throat with her free arm while taking shallow gasps. Looks like she was a having a hard time breathing…

Both wear leather, both showing a lot of skin, what the hell? They buy clothes from the same shop? Jeremy subconsciously raised an eyebrow and also his gun at the interlocked duo.

"Oi, guitar whore, I call dibs on the Gear-girl. Back of from her. Now" Colt swore he felt knives the people behind him glared him with.

The fox gave another malicious grin.

"That's funny, I don't see your name on her"

"You know what's even funnier? Me putting a bullet in your fucking head because you were stupid enough to stay where you are"

The red bitch's grin grew even wider before she got the message. The wrong one.

"Really? Then try me. I dare you." The bitch then hid her face behind the head of her prisoner, while her hold on the Gear's throat grew even tighter, making the Gear-girl give off a pained whimper.

Colt twisted his face in frustration along with all the crewmembers around him, Shit, if I do nothing, She'll choke her to death. If I try being Rambo, she'll probably choke her to death even faster

Analyzing the situation, the first thing that came to Jeremy's mind was that he had to get that bitch of a strangler off balance. The second thing was that it had to be done with a single bullet. Jeremy checked all the surfaces of the hallway section that surrounded the guitar whore.

Ceiling lights too far away from her. Nope

Right wall was a bunch of doors. Nope 

The only thing the floor offered of use was the anchor. Nope

But implanted in the left wall was a hatch that opened out into the outside. Obviously it was locked, but it could be smashed…

Colt fired and the lock on the left wall broke in a spark. 

The hatch easily gave way to the rushing winds outside and burst open. The winds rushing inside threw the interlocked duo off their feet for a few precious seconds.

Jeremy charged at the two (avoiding the girl in orange, who had recovered and had been watching the entire time, interestingly enough).

Before Jeremy could effectively close the distance, though, the red-woman caught balance in time. She gave an animalistic snarl and matching glare before turning to one side and because she still was hanging onto the Gear-girl, lashed out one of her oversized boots at Colt's in between. The attack instead struck at his gut, making Jeremy keel forward whilst clutching his stomach with both hands (regardless of the gun) and his eyes widening in the ensuing shock and extreme pain. The musician capitalized and moved an arm from the Gear's throat to Colt's shirt collar, from which she neatly pulled forward the man in green, causing his head to contact the Gear's.

Jeremy stumbled around from the second severe blow to the head, clutching his head and stomach, and trying to regain his balance again amidst the strong wind from outside and the pain in his head. He then (easily) lost his balance completely, swung his arms about momentarily, before tumbling through hatch and over the side of the plane. Finally overcoming his dizziness, he found himself dangling from the open entrance of the hatch because his foot was stuck in its corner. His hat was caught on a piece of metal sticking out of the hull below him and the gun (miraculously) was still in a knuckle-white hold in his hand.

"Hey, hotshot"

Jeremy looked up to see the guitar whore, in the same hold on the Gear-girl as before, standing above him at the opened hatch.

"Thanks for exit, I was hoping to finish her off alone…" with a sneer and a shove, the musician shoved the Gear off the vehicle into bare sky. Colt looked on in mixture of disgust, horror, and frustration as he saw the screaming, flailing mess of feathers and flesh disappear over the large wing of the Mayship. A red blur flew over the same path before diving downwards after the source of the echoing cry of the Gear.

"SHIT!" Jeremy, with his free hand, grabbed his trapped leg roughly and wrenched it out of its own metal grip. He then fell down onto the wing and slid over and off the metal surface, grabbing his soul mate, the green hat, in the process and shoving it onto his head crudely. Falling through the air in a more controlled manner than his objective, he found that neither the Gear-girl, nor the guitar whore was visible in the air or in the lush forest below. Forget them, time to save *himself* now.

Using the 'curse', purple coils sprouted out of his shoulder blades, through his shirt and cape. The cables flailed and dangled in the air momentarily before they started moving as if in its own will, flattening, adjoining to each other, and forming into solid, usable forms.

Wings.

The purple elements caught the air and threw the wings' owner up into the air. From there Colt gracefully glided in circles around the wooded areas below him, searching for any signs of his targets again. None found.

"Fucking Christ…" Jeremy let the sentence trail off through his gritted teeth. She was right there, and then it had to screw up because of that little…

 "If I ever get my hands on that musical bitch-whore…" Not now, one step at a time he told himself, Think

This little fiasco was in vain, leaving him a fair distance away from help and his bags and materials. 

Colt shivered for a second and looked up to see snow falling from the graying sky. 

I don't have winter clothes for the impending winter either. Neither does the Gear-girl. But she's a Gear. Gears are made to be tough. I'm not. 

Colt turned his head to the Airship and winced at the sight of a portion of it exploding. It was also landing. Good, if it lands that means the Jellyfish people will look for her, and most likely find her. 

What about the guitar bitch? 

She'll leave during the snowfall as well; she is only bounty hunter, after all. All in all, I'll have to post-pone my hunt for the bulk of the winter. Don't worry, the Gear-girl will make it, I'm sure of *that*.

With an annoyed sigh, Colt swung around and flew in the opposite direction of the landing Mayship.

This had been a bad day, I need a drink.


	3. Fighting the Buearucrats

A.N.: I hate this chapter. BOUNTY # 7264320012 Subject: Second Self-Reliant Gear

Reward: 500,000.00 WD$

Current Bounty Status: Claimed

Claimer of Bounty: Jam Kuradoberri

Now that was the most total bullshit Jeremy had heard in a good while. He wasn't sure exactly this Jam person convinced the public she killed the Gear-girl, but he sure as hell wouldn't believe it. Besides, how could she known to find the Gear in the middle of the oversized FOREST? Well, it got rid practically all competition at least. Jeremy metal noted to send a note of gratitude for her helpful little contribution for his hunt. 

By the time he touched down near a correct civilization, Colt had made it to the eastern European areas. Thank the much-debated lord for not landing in Russia where all those nasty Snow Dragons lived. It was still winter, and some weeks after his infiltration of the pirate-filled Mayship, that ended so splendidly that Jeremy lost the Gear-girl from right under his nose. To somewhat make up for that, with the power of the still existent telephone system, Colt made a call the motel in Spain that he was still checked into, and also through the phone, checked out and had his baggage mailed over here. Wasn't technology wonderful?

Yeah, and pigs fly and make love with elephants in the Antarctic.

Jeremy sipped more of his coffee before turning away from the 'Dead Bounties' list, looking at the mostly empty bounty office behind him again. Ever since that Jam took the bounty, most of the talk was about her. She said she was going to build a restaurant with the money, bleh, what sort of shitty-ass idea was that? She could just take a loan from a bank or something. Stupid girl. The news didn't stop there, either. The Second Sacred Order of Holy Knights had been fully dismantled the same time Colt managed to make it back to civilization. The 'death' of the Gear-girl was the final proof needed that the Knights were no longer needed. When they interviewed Ky Kiske, the Leader of the Organization, about what he was going to do next, he said he was going into the police force. 

Comedy gold. 

Ky Kiske, Leader of man's last chance for survival, bane of all Gears, wielder of the Jinki weapon, Fua-whatever. For him to be reduced to be Ky Kiske, eater of doughnuts, drinker of bad coffee, worker of the graveyard shift, and chaser of street trash. Colt wasn't sure exactly how he didn't die laughing from the news, maybe it was the death glares from the people around him that time.

Jeremy stepped out of the small building and into the soft-snow filled streets of wherever-the hell-he-was, headed back to his momentary living space in the city. Deciding he needed a bit of a change from motels, Jeremy broke into an old furniture warehouse that was rarely visited by anyone. Since there was free furniture there, all he had to do was take out the furniture and put it into an office and viola, you have a makeshift bedroom. Anyways, back to Jam. Well there was a chance she *did* off the Gear-girl (Jeremy mental noted to himself to find out real her name, 'Gear-girl' was taking a lot of energy to say) out of existence, but he should make sure. That meant he should continue tracking down those Jellyfish freaks until he could find a suitable time to approach them and ask them where *she* went, probably in the most blunt and insensitive way possible, just for the laughs.

But still, how the hell can he find a sure way to track down those pirates whenever he wanted? Sure, there was the underground source, but those were mostly built upon rumors. He should go ask about this tracking business. That is, after a hot shower… and eating some of those sausages he bought, those were badass.

***********************

'Death's Den' was those funny little bars, those kinds that usually see to sprout mob deals and the like shit in the movies. Placed in an old basement, dark, musty and with all those nasty shadows that pop out to strangle you if make the wrong step, word, or choice. The only perfectly lit place was the place where the bartender stood behind the large counter (Jeremy never figured out what those where called, those counter things the Bartender was behind). The bartender himself was a large, balding man… he looked Italian, too. How utterly Godfather. Jeremy finished his inspection of the bar, shrugged, and continued down the remaining steps into the main room. Colt seated himself in front of the Bartender before asking for his drink.

"Budweiser?"

"I do not know if we have that. I will have to look"

"Sure, go ahead" Jeremy shrugged while having his head on his arm, which itself was resting on the counter. When Italian man returned with a 'Bud-lite', the conversation continued.

"I'm sorry, sir. I could only find this type of Budweiser"

"Whatever" Jeremy sipped the drink for a few seconds, "Say, you know any guys in this bar that seem to have good information on whereabouts of certain people?"

The Bartender looked somewhat lost, "I do not understand what you mean, sir"

"Eh, okay, I suppose I said it in the wrong way…" Jeremy thought for a few seconds before deciding the best course to use, " How about this: suppose I want to know more about say… that project 'J2' everyone's been blathering about for the last while. You know that rumor I'm talking about"

The Bartender nodded in confirmation.

"Well, say I want to know more about that crap, do you know any regulars in this bar that could possibly know more about it?"

Colt's fellow converser pointed to a Blondie seated by himself, sipping on a bottle full of something black, "I think you would need to talk to Mr. Low over there, in that case. He has been staying here for the last few days"

Jeremy grinned, "Thanks, I really appreciate the help"

The Bartender the nodded the thanks and turned to another waiting customer. Jeremy swiveled around and slid off his seat towards his suggested target of heavy interrogation, still armed with his Bud-lite bottle. The Blondie looked back at the Approaching figure with a large grin. Obviously he had overheard, or at least overseen the conversation. When the green figure finally approached the red one, Mr. Low spoke up.

"You want to talk to me?"

Jeremy noted out the accent of the man, Oh, a Brit. "Yeah, can I sit?"

"Oh sure go, ahead!" Low was still smiling

 Jeremy slid into the seat facing- A Brit full of sunshine. "Cool, My name is Jeremy Colt"

"Axl Low"

"Interesting name…Anyways, Mr. Corleone back there said I should talk to you…" Jeremy didn't expect Mr. Sunshine to get the joke. But Axl, instead, was in surprise.

"You watched The Godfather?"

Now how the fuck did he know that movie? "Uh…. Yeah?"

Mr. Sunshine scratched his bandanna swathed head, "Well, that's funny, I never heard of somebody ever watching Godfather"

With a wave of his hand, Jeremy quickly shoved that factor out of the conversation, "Anyways, I've been having a bit of difficulty tracking down some guys…You know anyway or anybody I could use to consistently keep track of their position?"

"Well uh…" Axl frowned his face in deep thought for a few seconds, "Well I don't know anybody…I do know a…"

A pause of thought before reluctantly finishing.

"Er…I'm not sure if you need to hear this…"

"I'm game"

"You sure?"

"Sure"

"Well, you know the Post War Admin?"

"Oh yeah, those guys…" Jeremy trailed off and tilted his head off to another angle, while remembering those who now the current centers of discussion. He always thought those guys were strange. The way they talked in speeches, the way they made promises, the way they thought the world should be. They were like something out of a cult or the like related shit.

"Hey… Hey! Are you listening to me?"

Jeremy looked back to his conversation with the Brit guy.

"Eh? You said something?"

"Just wondering if you were in the real world"

"Yeah, Yeah, I am" Jeremy raised an arm in mock defeat.

Axl gave another of those overly happy sunshine grins, "Okay! So I said, those post war guys are really uptight about keeping the peace, right?"

"Yeah…"

"I heard that those guys have a archive of a lot of people, and that they also have a lot of spies and such to keep track where those people are and where they're going"

Jackpot. "That…." Jeremy waved a finger at Mr. Sunshine, "That… is really uptight about the peace"

"I know! But whether if that's true or not…. I don't know, you could be in a wild goose chase for all you know"

A rumor…. A rumor about a bunch of weirdo bureaucrats…. Usually those are true rumors…. Jeremy smirked "Hey, you never know if a books sells until you sell it"

"True"

Jeremy pushed himself out of is seat, "Well, thanks for the tip, pal"

Axl's eyes followed Jeremy, who was paying the bartender some money, supposedly for the drink, "Hey, be careful. If the Post War guys find out, they don't know the word 'give up' when it comes to chasing somebody down"

"Whatever… Where is Post War Admin HQ anyways?"

Axl told him. 

Jeremy gave a look, "Noooooooo"

Axl imitated, "Yeeeeeeessss"

"Damnit, I just got back from there"

"Tough luck, eh?"

A groan and the rolling of the eyeballs, "Yes, the tough luck"

Axl took another sip of his coke (of which Jeremy noticed during his conversation) before raising it up to him in a mock salute, "Well, good luck, Jeremy. Happy hunting!"

"Whatever…" Jeremy walked off and up the steps leading out of the underground chamber. It was then Axl suddenly decided to ask, he shouted in the direction of the staircase.

"Hey! Who you looking for anyways?"

No answer.

Mr. Sunshine shrugged before turning back to his drink, figuring that he was already gone when he asked, and that this Jeremy guy was a very strange odd-ball if he was deciding to pick on the Post War guys

********************

Jeremy looked out both directions down the empty street. He was in really bad need of getting rid of that black cloud above his head. He faced the heavens and challenged it:

"WHY THE FUCK DOES THE HQ HAVE TO BE IN FRANCE?"

********************

Days later, it was nightfall in the city of Paris. The time of the night where all the tourists are asleep and the street scum come out to rule the city. Moving at a fast pace along the city roofs was the hunter of the Gear-girl. He was now fully clad in black (he couldn't find black shoes, but what the fuck, who cares?), he had since dropped the hat and the cape, leaving his brown hair free for the wind to torment. Securely strapped to his back was another sack of the same hue as his clothing, and of course, he still had his gun with him. Colt was grinning as he ran along the rooftops.

Look at me! I'm Super-Hero! The dark figure slid to a halt to face a building adjacent to the one he was one. Slashed across the building front was the symbol proclaiming to the world that it was property of the Post War Admin Bureau. Jeremy inspected the building perimeter.

A tollbooth in the front. An apartment building on one side of the complex. Fences all around. Graveyard-shift guards on patrol. A small park on the other side of the complex.

Okay. Colt looked about his immediate surroundings now. There was a pipe clinging onto the side of the building. It looked strong enough to hold his weight. Jeremy slipped on black gloves while walking up to the edge of the apartment he was on. Stepping onto the edge, he looked down wards into the alleyway.

Bleh, getting funny feeling going up my back The black figure swung himself over the edge carefully, and caught a firm hold onto the metal piping. This was going to be such a major bitch. Jeremy slid down the pole, thanks to the precautionary procedures he took in the form of the gloves, Jeremy did not have bleeding messes of hands when he reached the bottom, but they were very warm though. Jeremy snorted and removed the devices from his fingers

"Holy shit…" That was scary. Remind self not to do that very often Jeremy rechecked his supplies before jogging across the streets, into the dark embrace of the park. Inside the pitch black, Colt crouched low and hobbled across the lawn. A curious sniff of the air incited a frown.

What the fuck? This place smells of more alcohol than that Death's Den place he was before. A muffled sound resist sounded of not a few yards to his left. Looking over he saw three silhouettes beside a small pile of glass.

The two crouching ones were two drunken punks (the pile of glass was a lot of beer bottles). One had his pants down; the other was holding a struggling form against the floor. The third one on the floor was a woman (clothes torn to bits, duh) apparently the victim of rape. Drunken rape. Whatever.

Be hero?

No.

Jeremy continued past the threesome. He was feeling rather guilty.

Come on man, it's the right thing to do

She'll get over it.

You're not a cold-hearted bastard and you know it

She's not important

With great power comes great responsibility, you dick

I don't care about the fucking-

"Who the fuck are you?" a slurred voice shouted at Jeremy. He looked back to see the drunk duo fixing their pants and stuff and walking over to him. Apparently, the woman saw Colt after all, and started a renewed effort in making a commotion in order to get Jeremy's attention. The rapists looked in the direction their little toy was looking and bingo! Here we are!

Bitch.

"Fuck, Garreth, kill him already. We don't need a tattle-tale"

Jeremy looked back and forth between the two men on both his sides, and gave off a cold voice, "I don't tattle, now go screw her and be done with. I'll be gone before she starts moaning"

The man that wasn't Garreth sneered, "Sorry, pal, we don't trust shit like you. Slag him, Gar" The man to Colts right charged forward with a small switchblade, already opened. Jeremy dodged Garreth's pathetic attempt to kill him, and grabbed the hand and wrist of his first attacker, and twisted it in a direction that, obviously, caused great pain. Garreth was in mid-yelp in pain when Colt thrust his open palm into Garreth's jaw, making it smash back into it's closed position (and most likely sliced his tongue into two or three separate pieces). While Garreth reeled backwards from the momentum of the last blow, Jeremy smashed the same fist downwards into the rapist's stomach. Garreth flew into the soil, unconscious from the pain. His friend (or whatever fucking relationship he had with him) looked in shock for a second before going into a rage. He charged towards Colt.

"FUCKER! I'LL EAT YOU ALIVE!" 

Before he could change plans or reactions, Jeremy reached behind his back and pulled out his weapon. Colt, almost casually, brought the barrel section of the gun flying across the face of his opponent, snapping the drunkard's nose into a position God well intended not to be in. while the drunkard whimpered from the pain, Jeremy flew behind to the unprotected back of his victim and snapped a sideways kick into the rapist. He stumbled forward into a tree, causing his broken nose even more damage. He was about to cry out in pain like his comrade, Garreth. But also just like Garreth, he didn't get he chance. Feeling a good portion of his hair being pulled back, he moaned confusedly while he stumbled back with his hair still having a firm grip on his head. He was then thrown forward into the tree again. He only felt his head smashed inwards for a few seconds before the black became his only world.

**************************

Oh yay, now that bitch ran off and is probably now calling the cops, perfect. Jeremy snorted and let his opponent fall backwards from the side of the tree that bore his blood. Fucking bitch, should have just gotten raped and gotten her rewards for deciding to walk the streets at midnight, but no, she just *had* to think he was the knight in shining armor. Bitch. Still, Jeremy felt a little bit better, but not by much. If it were that guitar whore he was in the middle of beating the shit out of, he would have felt *so* much better. Anyways, he better do his shit before the cops get here. He didn't wan to be leaving his scene of crime while the cops were still in the middle cleaning up this mess here.

Jeremy fitted his weapon back into its holster and ran off towards the fence deeper into the park. He ducked behind a tree a few yards from the fence separating the park from the P.W.A.B building. Peeking out from behind the tree. He waited patiently. It was a few minutes later that he saw two guards pass the section of fencing that faced Colt. The moment the talking and the footsteps started to fade, Jeremy flew from his cover and dashed towards the fencing. A few feet from the wall, he put all the energy of his run into his front leg and launched himself over the flimsy metal defense. The single aerial bound took him straight into the complex. A second leap flung him several feet into the air, his body parallel to the office building. It was on the descent that his hand formed into the purple talons. Smashing into the concrete wall, he clung fast onto the building. Jeremy shook his head free of the impact, then started climbing up upwards, and avoiding windows along the way.

Here we go. A re-run of the Mayship accident, only this, time he was going vertical. He didn't also have to worry about losing his hat. Still…

Pulling himself over the side and onto the roof, and he reminded himself why exactly he was here in the first place.

Anyways, like Mr. Sunshine said, since the Bureaucrats from hell supposedly have agents all over the world, reporting about those important people or whatever. So the fastest way to report was through radio (still existent). Since Jeremy already had the type of radios that the P.W.A.B used for communication (one of those illegal things he picked up one day, when he was bored). All he had to do was steal some files that talked about frequencies of radios. That means going to… somewhere, but he had no idea. Well, it happened in movies, but one, in real life, can't certainly find blueprints for high-priority buildings without raising eyebrows. So Colt hoped they had a map in the building for the newbie workers to use.

Jeremy kicked a vent grate out of the way. It revealed a hole in the floor. 

But like in the movies, one can find air vents big enough to fit men in. Vents suck.

***********************

 Deep inside the confusing mess hallways of the P.W.A.B building, an air-con vent was removed and pulled inward into the air ducts. Jeremy peered out, his face visibly now a color matching his clothes, thanks to the dust inside the small tin tunnel.

"Fucking roaches, these guys got to address their air-systems more often" finding no immediate threats, Jeremy dropped to the floor feet first, pulled out his weapon, readied the weapon, and jogged down the hallways.

Fucking perfect. More hallways. 

Along one of the walls was a map, like Colt predicted. Jeremy peered over the plastic plate. Well, they had a radio room.

Interesting. 

Well, time to visit the basement floor. Jeremy found an elevator and entered. Pressing the bottommost button, Colt eased himself and leaned back against the wall.

The Elevator later chimed its arrival, reminding Colt to cover half of his face with his free arm. The metal doors slide open, revealing a security guard a few feet from the open chamber Colt was in. Apparently, the said guard was going up a floor to get some coffee, which explains why he was already so close to the elevator. Surprise was plastered all over his face, letting Jeremy use the advantage of the extra time. He fired a single shot into the security guard's thigh, dropping him. The guard immediately called to behind him.

"GET HELP NOW!" The guard in a desk leant forward before grabbing his walkie-talkie on his waste and brought it up to his mouth.

"This is radio floor, requesting- AGGHH!" a second shot smashed through the communication device and through the guards hand. Jeremy had noticed the second one in time. Looking back down at the security at his feet, the guard looked back up with a mix of fear and anger. Jeremy kicked the side of the 'Pwab'- guard's head leaving the man in between the world of conscious and not. Jeremy looked over the new room. Actually it was a hallway, colored in a claustrophobically tan color. It was wide enough for the desk to sit snug next to a wall and leave room for a man to walk in between the other wall and said desk. At the end of the hall was a large, sealed metal wall, meaning the radio room was locked off to Colt. A nine-digit keypad was to one side of the sealed door. The guard with the injured hand was using his still usable other to pull out his sidearm. Jeremy dashed up to the remaining threat, firing a shot that ripped across the usable arm of the guard. The 'Pwabbie' stepped back for a second to adjust to the pain before raising the weapon again. Jeremy was too close already; he used his free arm from hiding his face to giving a backhand to one side of his opponent's face. While the pwabbie spun in a half circle, Jeremy grabbed the back of the guard's shirt collar and shoved his own handgun into his captive's back. Colt growled into the head in front of him.

"Drop the gun" the clatter of metal sounded off the walls of the hall. Jeremy then shoved the guard forward, towards Radio room door. Upon reaching the end of the hall:

"Open the door"

A gritty voice retort, "Make me"

Jeremy didn't waste the excuse to shoot the pwabbie in the foot. After the expected yelp of pain, the threat was amended.

"Open the door now, or your balls are next" The guard's head bobbed up and down before a pale arm punched in several buttons on the keypad. The metal wall Colt faced soon slid up into the ceiling. The guard spoke up.

"You aren't going to get away with this, the silent alarms have been tripped-" Colt finished the sentence for him by smashing the handle of his gun into back of his captive's head. Dropping the final enemy to the ground, Jeremy faced the large room with a snort and his hands to his hips. Time for work.

**********************

Some streets away from the P.W.A.B HQ, a police car silently prowled for any evildoers that pass by the mighty vehicle of justice. The late night didn't tire the police cop inside, as he had already stayed up late enough times in his life to not be bothered. The police radio gave a new order.

"All officers in ______ street vicinity, please report in"

The officer inside the vehicle pulled out his mike to reply.

"Officer Kiske reporting". Several garbled names and 'reporting's and 'here's also then came through the channel. The female voice then gave her next set of orders.

"The silent alarms at the Post War Administration Bureau Headquarters have been tripped. All available units are to go there immediately. All suspects found in or around the building is to be considered highly armed and dangerous …"

That was all Ky Kiske needed to hear. He turned on the Sirens of his vehicle and flew down the streets of Paris to the building. All the while he quietly whispered a prayer of protection to God. At this speed it would take him around five minutes to get there.

**********************

It was a good five minutes after he found the file cabinet containing the general information he need, and for the entire time he had been stuffing as many folders full of memos and files in the 'R' section (for radio) and the 'F' section (for frequencies) into the bag that was open on the floor. He, in fact, found an extra bag in the room. So he was hauling two bags, fattened up with paper, with him now, one strapped on his back and the other over his shoulder. Jeremy stepped back to 'admire' his work. Well, he had certainly done a job well done in clearing out all that shit in those drawers. Time to go. Colt nodded to himself and ran back down the hallway with the two vegetables of a security guard still lying on the floor. Reaching the elevator, Jeremy smashed the button for the first floor and waited impatiently for exit for this hellhole of an office building. The remaining security was probably waiting for him at the lobby.

Reaching his destination, Jeremy found himself amidst a sea of cubicles.  He looked in one direction and found a barrier of glass keeping him from the outside world. He dropped his bag slung over his shoulder and onto a chair (those rolling kinds) and pulled the chair/bag along with him until he reached glass wall. Pulling the bag of the chair, Colt then picked up the chair itself from the floor with both arms and flung it into the windows. Breaking easily under the heavy device, the glass fell away from the frame; Jeremy picked his bag up onto his shoulder again (the other one, considering the first was already pretty sore) and dropped out of the shattered wall. Falling onto the earth, Jeremy quickly rolled out of his initial impact to save his legs the threat of being broken. They still hurt though. Forgetting that factor, the black figure of the now successful burglar ran out of the complex perimeter and as fast as he could away from the area. The cops were very close; the sirens were already trying to turn Jeremy deaf. Running across the street with no regard for the universal rules of 'safe street crossing', Colt soon learned his lesson as a Police car stopped in front of his path of direction, Making Colt smash into the vehicle and roll over its engine hood. Fuck, the cops are already here.

"Shit!"

***********************

"Shit!" 

The figure in black rolled over the Ky Kiske's engine hood and fell over the over side of his car. The man then continued his mad pace away from the complex. The continued escape already told Ky what just hit his car. The criminal. Instantly the officer was out of his car and after the shadows of the villan, walkie-talkie in one hand and revolver in the other. Ky shouted into the radio.

"This is officer Kiske, suspect is sighted heading from the scene of crime, headed south on  ________ road"

The walkie-talkie spoke back in a calmer fashion than its owner, "understood, all units, the suspect is heading south on  ________ road, I repeat…" the remaining went to the wind as the silhouette of the cop chased after the other silhouette of the evildoer, shouting "Freeze! Police!" at regular intervals. The pursuit soon took both into an alleyway with a dead end. The criminal was trapped. It was now a stand off.

"You're under arrest, drop the bag and put you hand behind you head"

The man in black turned around, the moonlight only able to reveal the bottom half of the face. He was smiling half-heartedly.

"Well officer, you got me fair and square…"

"I said, put your hand on your head"

"And why should I? I have done nothing wrong, I'm just fighting bad people, just like you…."

"I fight in the name of justice, you fight for your greedy ideals. We have nothing in common"

The thief, and now attempted philosopher was now sneering "Justice? The Justice of the police, and all people for that matter, is always fucked up and twisted to follow the thoughts and words of greedy men. You are nothing but a lapdog to corruption"

Ky fought against his anger from what he felt, was an insult to him, "You're wrong, not all people are like that"

His sneer was even bigger, "Oh really? I lived long enough to understand what the world is: there is no such thing as 'good' people. Everybody is bad and headed for the same shit hole. Justice and religion is just an excuse to make people feel better about themselves. We're all hopeless in the end. Your just as bad as I am…"

"Enough! Put your hands on your head and drop the bag, now!"

The man made a face, "Aw, did I make you angry offi-" The thief lashed his foot out at Ky, but during the entire conversation he had his foot digging into the soil, so a cloud of dust was kicked up, obscuring the officer's vision and burned his eyes. A yelp of pain followed suit as Ky was thrown off guard and he stumbled away from the cloud to prepare himself against any attacks by the thief.

None came.

When Kiske's vision cleared, he saw the man in black having easy time leaping up the window sills of the building which formed an alley, like they were a staircase. Reaching the top, the man disappeared onto the roof and he disappeared. Then the Calvary arrived.

**************************

"You okay Kiske? You look kind of shaken from tonight…" The questioning party handed Ky a paper cup full of coffee.

Ky looked up from his with a smile, while gratefully accepting the act of kindness and offer of an energy boost, "I'm fine, I'm just thinking…"

The police were now back at the Post War HQ, rather pissed off from the failed apprehension of the thief, and were currently in the middle of investigating the place. Ky was resting on the front steps of the building.

"Thinking? About what?"

"About tonight"

"Aw, don't worry about it Ky, you can afford to screw up a few times in your life"

Ky chuckled at the friendly encouragement before going back to sipping his coffee. He was thinking about tonight, but more on his short conversation with the thief before he escaped. The conversation itself didn't bother Ky too much, there were criminal out there all the time that thought they had a silver tongue. But the man's personal thought about justice brought back some dead memories of long before, when he still lead his knights against the evil abominations known as the gears.

_"I know you are going after the man that created the Gears. If that is the cause of the war, then it is my duty to seek him out._

_Sol didn't stop walking, "Give it up."_

_"Why? I am prepared to die for the sake of justice."_

_Now Sol stopped._

_"Justice? What if your pursuit for justice destroys the peace?"_

_"Wha…? I…"_

He fought for justice and good against evil.

Evil?

_Everybody is bad and headed for the same shit hole._

More memories.

_"Evil...has no place in this world..."_

_"Evil? You dare to call me evil?! I fight for my own existence, no more, no less."_

_"That cannot be reason for waging war on humans!"_

_"...Look at my body. I was created to kill humans...I'm a weapon. Yet, the same humans that created me never thought about my mind, my soul. I'd have been used as a tool...and if I'd refuse, I'd be dismantled!"_

_"...I..."_

_"Heh. Your time to depart from this world has come. But know this young Knight...if Gears are truly evil, then think about where we came from...we are your creations...If there is a shred of evil me, then it was installed inside me by your kind!"_

The memories and questions Ky thought he put to rest a while back was suddenly put to question again. Did he really fight for good now?  
  


_"Justice? The Justice of the police, and all people for that matter, is always fucked up and twisted to follow the thoughts and words of greedy men. You are nothing but a lapdog to corruption"_

The questions now burned in Ky's mind. He instantly knew what he should do. He must find out what justice and evil truly was before anything else. It was his mistake to think that he could drop something this big so soon. He should find out soon. Ky hoped that this was God's will.

***************************

"Subject CZ leaving 7710,0193,0011. Currently heading southeast…", another monotone voice from another radio states.

Jeremy known now only as the man was resting comfortably in a reclining chair back at his home HQ, inside the room lit only by a fireplace. Names didn't matter here; he was the only one living here anyways.

"Subject JK holding position 88607,01834,9223…"

It had taken him a shit load of time to figure it out, but after a day or so of thinking it out. He finally figured out who was who and how to make a mapping system according to the radio reports.

"Subject J, Subject M, S.subject D leaving 2499,1792,0273. Currently heading southeast…."

He traces a line from one pin in that direction, relative to a large map the pin and the line on it. There were several pins and lines on the map already, forming a large line that scarred the perfection of the map. 

"Subject SB leaving 1882,9713,9103. Currently heading north…."

He thought of other things along with the map. The files stolen proved far more useful than first expected. Along with the info for the P.W.A.B radio frequencies, he also found a lot of funny things that were recorded and filed. For example in 'R' there was a paper for a status report for some 'Robotic Imitation series' that was using that knight, Ky Kiske, as a base subject for the Prototype Robo-Imitation. The status report said the Prototype was complete. So the P.W.A.B had a….Robo-Ky…. What the fuck can a Robo-cop do? Also recorded in the 'F' section were the analysis and movement records for some freak calling himself Faust. The paper went on about how useful his capture could be and yadda yadda yadda. Fucking shit, a government conspiracy for the betterment of humanity. Again. Like that TV show…. what's that character's name again? Mully?

"Subject J, Subject M, S.subject D leaving 2520,1800,0279. Currently heading southeast…."

He slotted another pin into the map. And finished the traced line between the last two pins. Looks like the Pirates are heading to China. The man looked carefully at the map, deciding where the pirates would land…

"Subject J, Subject M, S.subject D holding position 2737, 3776, 1084…"

2737, 3776, 1084? That would be at…. Ah-ha! He presses a finger at that series of coordinates. That mean those Jellyfish freaks are staying a Fuzhou, China!

"OH YEAH! You dumbasses are so not getting away this time!" Once again, the figure lively dances around the room, re-supplying his traveling materials. He then travels up the ladder and through the hatch in the ceiling. Closing the hatch behind him, he now leaves the fireplace and the radio to their own businesses.

"Subject F leaving…"


	4. Theater of Darkest Body, Brightest Soul

"Where the hell is my order? You're getting a impatient customer here"

Colt had made it to Fuzhou, China with little difficulty. A prediction of his turned out correct: the P.W.A.B put up posters all over the planet with Jeremy as a bounty. He was pretty expensive too. Well, not as expensive as the Gear-Girl, but enough to catch shit loads of attention. Fortunately for him, physical descriptions were vague since eyewitnesses only saw half of his face. Still, the better bounty hunters around here might be able to figure what Colt looked like with the few pieces of info given on the poster. So for now, he had to lay a little lower than usual. Still, this didn't stop Colt from a good Chinese lunch. Currently, he was waiting for his meal at that Jam person's restaurant, deciding the best way to show his token of gratitude was to be a another faceless customer. Of course, it was kind of hard to be a faceless customer when your wonton and fried rice doesn't show up after an hour. Besides, he had to start looking for those pirates before it gets too late...

"Sir, please stay calm, I'm sure it will arrive soon"

"Yeah, you said that *three* times already…" Colt rested his head on his arm and thought irritably before coming to a conclusion, "I wanna talk to your to your boss"

The waiter looked nervously in a direction before reverting his gaze back to Colt, "Uh… you sure you want to do that? She doesn't like to get interrupted…"

Jeremy got up from his seat and glared at the waiter, since he was the closest vent for Jeremy's pissed-off-ness, "Interrupted from what?"

The waiter pointed at a table. Its current occupants consisted of some ring-haired chick talking to some blondie. Wait a second…. Hey…. the blonde is wearing Holy Order colors, he looks familiar…

Colt, on the outside, snorted and walked over to the table, determined to have his rant out at the ring-headed chick. Walking over, he heard bits of conversation.

"...You have a really beautiful name...Ky..."

"Uh...thank you"

Colt's infamous black cloud over his head grew to larger proportions at the conversation. Flirting at this time? Fucking Christ…

Jeremy tapped on the woman's shoulder, "Hey!"

The ring haired girl scowled sharply as she looked back at him. "What is it, can't you see I'm talking?"

Oh, 'talking' she says… this roused a frown to Colt's face, but he remembered he was here to complain, "I've been waiting for my fried rice and wontons for the past hour! When the hell am I gonna get served?! You think I give out my hard earned money for nothing?!"

The head of the restaurant crossed her arms and shut her eyes at her latest verbal opponent, "Pipe down, already. My staff will serve you when they're able to. Look around and you'll see that this isn't exactly the easiest of days. Just wait a little longer. Unless you're allergic to waiting"

Colt tapped one finger into his open palm while continuing his argument… maybe he should go into threatening. 

"Obviously you didn't hear me. I want my order now, or-"

"Or what?" She got up from her seat, "I told you to wait. If you don't like that, I'll reimburse you and then you can get the hell out of my restaurant."

Despite Colt's virtue against impulsiveness, the woman's attitude was pissing him off to new extremes. 

THAT'S IT! THIS BITCH IS GOING DOWN!. "Are talking to me like *that*, little girl?"

  
The ring headed shit of a bitch swiveled back to face Colt, "You don't really wanna fight with little ol' me, do ya? They say even the most beautiful flower can carry the deadliest poison...you 'aughta watch yourself, big guy..." Oh, she is asking for me to kick her face in…

Colt cracked his knuckles, preparing himself for the ensuing ass kicking of the flame bitch; "You got some spunk for a chick, little girl..."

The crowd around the restaurant drew near to the scene. Had Jeremy known about the situation, he would have walked away, now he was on the bounty lists. Top twenty as well. But Colt was too angry to notice that factor.

The flame bitch decided to prod at Colt's pissed-off-ness a bit more, "You really do wanna fight with me, huh? Figures. You macho types are all alike. You reek of B.O and you can't dance worth a damn"

Colt had enough. "What the hell did you say to me?!" Jeremy flung out one of his fists towards the waiting opponent's face, but was stopped abruptly when a new hand caught the attack in mid-flight. Both the flame bitch and the attempted attacker turned to face the 'peacemaker', which in this situation, was the blondie. He then tightened the grip on Colt's fist, -for lack of better description- crushing it.

Colt fell to one knee at the pain, while holding the pained appendage using his free arm. Ow, OW! Hand. Damage. OW!. "Agggghh…."

The peacemaker spoke out now, "I do believe that hitting a woman under such circumstances is not good etiquette for a gentlemen. So kindly leave before I'm forced to remove you" He then released the grip on Jeremy's really sore hand. 

Clutching his hand gingerly, Colt looked around, now that his anger had dissipated when the knight death-gripped Colt's hand. Now he realized he had an unneeded audience. With that he left the restaurant via the exit so helpfully pointed by the knight's Thunderseal…. Holy crap! Dumbass! You are in the same building as Ky Kiske! Get out get out GET OUT! 

Leaving the establishment, Jeremy looked at the building before shouting out at it.

"FINE, I'LL HAVE MY FUCKING LUNCH SOMEWHERE ELSE!" he then turned around and left down the dusty crowded streets towards his hotel. His lunch probably would taste better than the shit offered at that restaurant

************************

Days later, Colt slipped down the dark side streets and alleys of Fuzhou, which reeked of lowlifes that often had useful information to share. If anyone knew about the Jellyfish, they would. Besides, it would be easier to avoid that Kiske fellow if he decided to bring him in or whatever, now that Jeremy knew he was here. Interrogation (and often, threatening and ass-kicking) of the scum there didn't directly reveal where the Jellyfish stayed at (The pirates covered their tracks too well) but they told him of a place where they swore he would be able find clues.

Jeremy now stood in front of a closed sushi-shop, where it was said to house one of Johnny's 'friends' (whatever the hell *that* meant). They guy often collected gold off the captain of the pirates, and the two often looked out for each other, so he probably knew where Johnny was hiding out at. This was going to suck…

*************************

Lo Ping was sitting in front of a table, looking over the bills placed on it while planning his course of action for tomorrow. Ping then heard bells chiming, meaning that the front doors to the shop had been opened. Turning around, he saw an American man dressed in green marching boldly towards him. Lo stood up and intercepted the figure.

"I'm sorry sir, my shop is closed today…"

The American didn't seem to notice the statement, "You're the owner of this shop?"

"Yes…"

He shook Ping's hand, "Nice to meet you, have a seat…"

The Sushi shop owner sat nervously down in his seat, knowing not to trust the likes of this man for a second. There was a silence while the American leaned against a post and said nothing, letting the brim of the hat cast a shadow over his eyes.

Lo spoke up hesitantly, "What do want of me?"

The man's head looked back up to the shop keeper, "I'm looking for a girl, blue hair, red eyes, around 19-20 years of age…" He waved his hand about his head as if he was trying to draw the physical description onto his own face, "I heard that she is currently under the care of a Johnny, and I also heard you are friends of the same man and that… you know where he is currently residing at, here in Fuzhou. It would be most kind of you if you tell me where he is staying at" The American finished with a cheerful face. Lo Ping, on the other hand remained grim. He started to think of earlier in the morning…

*************************__

_"Hey Lo, how's the business?" a smooth, cheerful voice sounded out from behind the keeper of the sushi shop. Turning around he came to face a familiar face that was decorated with sunglasses and a wide hat._

_"Ah Johnny! I wasn't expecting you're so soon! Staying at the same place as usual?"_

_"Yup"_

_ The two men meet and shake hands, before the one clad in black gently pulls forward a shy young woman carrying a small basket._

_"Lo Ping, I'd like you to meet Dizzy, one of my newest crew members. Dizzy, this is Lo Ping"_

_She bowed slightly, "Hello…"_

_Lo chuckled lightly before giving a nod, "Morning, Dizzy"_

_Johnny cut back in, "I need to talk to you for a sec"_

_"Sure"_  
  


_The two made of bit of distance between them and the Dizzy. The captain started._

_"Dizzy's in trouble, a few people have been chasing her for a little while, and it's kind of quiet right now, but I've got a feeling that somebody's going to turn up here, asking questions. Promise me that you won't answer any of their questions if someone comes, snooping around"_

_"You can trust me" _

_Johnny smiled, if there was one thing Lo Ping can do, it was to keep promises"_

_"Anyways, I got a bit of a present for you…"_

_Ping grinned, any present of the Pirate King was usually gold, "I see, I think we better go into the back first to see it" with that, the trio went into the rear of the building._

***************************

_"You can trust me" _ the words echoed again in Ping's head and he boldly resisted, "No, I refuse to tell, or trust you with any sort of information"

The American sneered, "Oh? You can trust me, we're both friends of  Johnny…"

Lo shot up from his seat "In a Pig's ass! He told me somebody like you was going to come, now get out!"

He made a mocking pout before giving his response, "Well then, if I can't make you talk, I'll just suck out the info for myself" he then pounced at Lo, whom he caught of guard and as an end result, had both men crashing onto the floor, with Colt's hand latched onto Shop keeper's face. With a growl, Colt stood up and suspended Lo off the ground by the clutched head. Colt gave a sly grin while his prey's face was twisted in fear and agony.

"Such a fine mind…almost a pity to waste…" It was then the Jeremy's eyes glowed a dull purple. In the mean time, Lo Ping's eyes rolled into the back of his skull and his body spasm and twitched. A few agonizing minutes later, the twitching body stopped doing such, thus telling Colt that he read as much useful crap in his quarry's mind as he could. He casually and un-ceremoniously dropped the Chinese man to the ground. Looking around the establishment, he found no eyewitnesses to kill, and thus left the building through the back door.

***************************

Jeremy strolled across the rooftops of the city, thinking again over his new info. Mind reading of course, sucked. He was untrained in such a skill so it took too long to steal memories, and also looking for the right information was like a search engine: he had to search using a particular theme within one's head, in this case the theme was any memory with the name Johnny in it. Often the search comes up with un-related crude. He was lucky this time; he found out the Gear-girl's name was Dizzy and that when Jellyfish hang out in Fuzhou, it was often the motel called "Golden Turtle", which was where he was heading now. He was carrying with him the gun, but this time, he carried all four clips with him. A large wind nearly blew his hat off, but luckily, he caught it in time. Jeremy looked up into the graying sky. Odd, newspaper said it was going to be pretty sunny today…

"Whoa!" He leaped off the roof and onto his target motel building. The building looked fine…apart from that Gear-sized hole in the front of the building, of which Colt earlier showed his surprise. What the bloody fuck happened here? Jeremy then heard a conversation below him. He crawled over the side of the low roof to hear the talk better.

"Axl?" one voice said, which Colt identified as Johnny

AXL!? Mr. Sunshine is here?!

"From the looks of things, I'd say you've had a pretty big party! Any unexpected guests?" The British voice cheerfully called out  
  
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you. What are you doing here?"

"Well... I have a few things to iron out. Lets just say it's a debt I own to someone in the near future. I've come to tell you the location of the girl you're looking for"  
  


Girl? Looking? What the fuck is going on?

"You know where Dizzy is?" The voice belonged to an eager child.

DIZZY IS NOT HERE!?

"Uh huh. Everyone could use a helping hand every now and again. That girl is at a large tower in the southern grasslands outside of just outside Fuzhou. It should take you about a hour to get there by foot"

Colt needed to hear no more; he shot straight up from his lying position and jumped onto another roof. If Dizzy was lost, and away from help, so much the better, Colt still had first dibs on her. Flying across the roofs he then suddenly realized: Damnit, dumbass! People don't just wander an hour's walk away from civilization! If she's at that tower, somebody has captured her. Now I have to fight for her…. wait…that's a good thing…. He soon saw over the horizon, a large grayish, blackish spire amidst a sea of green. Colt could see from here that the top section of the tower was destroyed; leaving the top floor open to the rain that was now starting to fall. Flames both red and blue were lively dancing at the top floor, leaving no doubt in Jeremy's mind that something really fucked up was going on there.

*************************

"Ah, damn my heart…." Jeremy leaned against the stone constructed wall of the immense black tower, whilst clutching his chest, which was giving off immense discomfort. Jeremy scolded himself about not working out as he planned to do. Recovering himself for the most part, Jeremy faced the immense double doors implanted into the wall. A quick shrug gave way to a hefty push, which in turn caused the large doors open and give way for the Dizzy's stalker. The inside of the tower was shown to contain nothing. It was just one big tube that went all the way up to the top and only floor of the tower. Determined war cries and clashing of metal echoing in the tower from above told Jeremy that two people were fighting, most likely over Dizzy. No surprise there, last time Jeremy saw her she *was* really hot. A hot Gear…. weird. Colt shook his head free of the thought and looked around. He saw that the only way up to the top of the tower was a large staircase that winded its way up the inner wall of the spire.

Queue annoyed groan now. Jeremy did such and action before beginning his steady ascent up the long steps, the sound of battle being his only entertainment on the up. After the eternity up the flight of stairs, Jeremy finally got up into the next chamber. It revealed an empty circular chamber, at the other end adjacent to Jeremy, there lay another staircase, but from the looks of it, the final stairs to conquer before he could get Dizzy and have the curse removed. He turned anxious at the thought of salvation from the 'curse' and dashed towards the final obstacle before a new one arose from the shadows.

"Well, well, well. Aren't you anxious to get some out there" a familiar, sly, voice chimed out, causing Jeremy to stop in his tracks. He remembered that voice.

Colt went into a fury and pointed at the emerging figure, "YOU! FUCK, GUITAR WHORE, STAY OUT OF MY BUSINESS!"

The 'guitar whore' chuckled, "Stay out of it? That would be such a boring, simple life, and I wouldn't be able to kill anybody that way"

Glaring at the woman, Colt gave a simple question, "What do you want with the Gear-girl?"

"Oh please, what sort of question is that? I just want to hear her whimper and die by my hands. Killing people is so much fun, don't you agree?"

Tsch, serial killers, how typical of them. "Well in that case, I can't allow you to get to Dizzy until I'm done with her, I called dibs you know"

She snorted, "Dibs, Pah! What sort of stupid-ass system is that? Since you're going to be the dumb shit hotshot you are and try and save that bitch-Gear, fine, I'll just have to kill you too"

Colt placed his hands on his hips, "I consider that a compliment of the highest kind" the last words were ignored, as the guitar bitch flew towards Colt at an amazing speed. Jeremy dodged out of the way just as she brought the guitar downwards by the neck. Colt jumped back several more feet before bringing out his gun and cocking the weapon. 

"Suck on it, bitch!" Jeremy emptied the clip in the direction of the approaching red blur. She defended herself against the ammunition using the guitar as a shield. She then ducked down low and swung her body upwards, at which during the same time a blade of energy flew out of the ground and smashed into a surprised Jeremy, how had been standing underneath the appearing blade. Crashing onto his back Colt found the guitar whore leaning over him smirking at the downed form.

"Heh, you're a tough sack of shit"

She's not guarding! Colt returned a smirk of his own before bracing his body with his hands and flipping backwards, catching his opponent by the jaw while his legs were kicking up and over. Another hop backwards placed the two a breathable distance from each other. The last blow on her showed minor bruising. Jeremy brought up his weapon again, this time she attacked by throwing her self into the air, which caused another energy blade to fly towards Colt, knocking him back several meters across the chamber and the gun the same distance in another direction. He got back up to his feet quickly.

"Ooooh, this is going to be fun. Can't even fight now"

Time to cheat, time to bring out the bigger guns, and time to use the curse. 

"I'll show you"

He then flung out his hand at the musician; the action caused three thick purple cables to sprout from his back, each tipped with spear shaped end, and throw themselves at her, whom was much surprised at the new tactic. She managed to fly to one side of the ranged attack in time, of which they smashed into the wall next to her. The cable-spears dissipated into the air. She looked back at the approaching figure.

"So you can see, like your guitar, much exists within me than meets the eye…"

She sneered back, "I'm going to have a grand time looking at what makes you tick when I tear you open"

"Whatever", he quickly snapped his fingers at her. She, of course, sensed the attack miles away, as she gracefully jumped into the air while a gigantic purple blade smashed out of the ground underneath her, much like the attack she employed on Jeremy earlier. She then swooped downwards like a bird of prey, whilst surrounded by a green aura. The musician turned makeshift flying comet smashed into Jeremy, knocking the wind out of him. When they both landed Colt growled and kicked off his opponent before trying a new strategy. More cables grew out of his back before smashing into ground and launching him into the ceiling where he clung there using his purple fingers turned talons.

"Trying to play hard to get, eh?"

Jeremy just clung there while the cables flattened into paper-thin blade forms, which then once more hurled themselves at her. She nimbly avoided such attacks before her opened up into a large expanse one could describe as a jaw. A look of surprise came from Jeremy

"Well, I wish my hat could do that"

"Sucks to be you, then" was the only reply before the hat-mouth fired out a green, gelatin like projectile that flew up to knock Jeremy from his high perch. While avoiding the initial impact, the attack caused a sizable amount of the ceiling to collapse, which Colt was clung fast to. But he still had many tricks to accomplish first. He retracted the whip-blades back into his back, but because the weapons were trapped in the stone floor, it was he who flew towards his weapons and also towards the woman who was patiently waiting for the attack. He held out hands, still formed as long claws, and gave a cry as he approached. Before he was practically on top of her, a mike stand (with one end finishing with a large spiked ball) suddenly appeared in her waiting grasp. She kicked the weapon end upwards, which smashed into Jeremy's chest and propelled him over the guitar bitch.

She gave mocking yawn, "This is getting boring. Are you just going to throw those ropes all day?"

He staggered back up, truly winded by the blow. But she was right: this style wasn't working. This time, a large purple blade snapped out from underneath his sleeve, apparently attached to the side of his wrist. Enough talk, kick her ass! Jeremy dashed towards his opponent again, but instead of lashing out with the bladed arm, he flung out his other hand, in which the fingers had melded together into two smaller blades, that were threatening to clip the musician's head off her body. She easily avoided the attack by hopping backwards, and retaliated by swinging her unique weapon at Colt. Swirling on one foot, he twisted out of the way and during the turn, left a large gash on the woman's side by flailing about one of his blades. She went into a rage and hissed at the Jeremy, who was swinging the large wrist blade downwards at her. Before he could successfully cleave her in two, she threw her open palm upwards, which caused another energy spike to score a hit on Colt's chest, making him stagger back a few feet while he tried to correct his balance that was damaged from the blow. The guitar whore capitalized on the chance and before he could retaliate, a sting on her guitar came loose into her palm. She swung the sting around Colt's backside, and a quick jerk from her hand holding the string made the device rip across his back and left a large, fine cut. Back on the ground again, Jeremy struggled back to his knees before a vice grip of a hand caught him the by throat and held him aloft in the air, amidst the gagging and choking of psychic.

A cruel grin.

 "Your out of your league hotshot, go scream for me…" she increased her grip on Jeremy's throat, causing him to thrash wildly, hoping to get her off his neck. One of his hands reverted into claws and he slashed the forearm holding him, leaving it a bloody mess.

No effect.

Holy…shit… he drew his arm back and stabbed into her shoulder, the hand this time holding purple spike. Both sensed it digging deep into her shoulder.

Now that worked

With a shriek of pain, she released Jeremy from the chokehold. She gingerly held her bloody shoulder before her eyes flashed with uncontrollable anger towards him. White wings sprouted out from behind her while she held the guitar in both hands.

"DIE!" The hat opened up into its large jaw again, firing out a large chain of energy. Jeremy leaped over the attack towards her. Forming out of the air and into his and was a long purple rod. She just finished her attack when the Colt swung his head downwards into her head. The effects were achieved as she began to drunkenly sway for a few second as the world around her twirled. Colt looked behind his opponent and much to his pleasure, she was found to be only a few step in front of the long staircase that lead up to their current chamber of battle. The rod dissipated into the air and he drew his fist back and lashed out at the woman's head, his arm being covered in psychic flames. She flew out several meters into the dark expanse of the tower staircase, and smashed head first into the stairs from which she began her tumble downhill and disappeared out of Colt's view. He still heard the sound of flesh hitting something solid, though.

"SERVES YOU RIGHT YOU FUCKING- owww…." Jeremy clutching his chest in agony cut the insult short. He went onto his knees and bowed his head to the floor to smother the pain. Re-assessment time.

Well, he finally taught the guitar bitch a lesson, he probably won't be seeing her for a little while. That weapon was fucked up to the highest though…

Wait a sec; he still might have to fight some other people up on the roof. Can he even still fight?

Jeremy felt the pain more controllable now, and got back up. Oh yeah, he can still fight plenty. That one hell of a cut though….

Jeremy winced feeling the wound being flexed along with his back. He took a whole shit load more in his life, this was nothing out of the ordinary for him, in such cases of his past combat experiences.

Picking up his gun, which he found was still usable after being in such a battlefield. He released the catch and let the metal tab inside the weapon drop out. Replacing the magazine, he began his walk up the final flight of stairs that led to the destroyed roof.

Dizzy was up there, and there was no way in hell anything was going to stop him from getting her now.


	5. Dream

A.N. : Recently finished custom sprite of Colt. If you wish, I can give you copies of the image. Just give me your e-mail address.

Odd place was the only way Jeremy could describe the remains of the top floor, even if it was an understatement to the strangeness of the place.

Remains of stone structures and marble statues littered the place. At the other end of the tower, facing Colt was a large staircase leading up to two mangled gates. The sky above was painting the ground with a light rain, the heavens itself were strangely colored blood crimson. As if the ground was not enough, the air was decorated with large floating shards of ice…..crystal…..something. Colt continued to peer cautiously at each Gear visibly imprisoned inside each crystal thingy, before tapping the barrel of the gun into his other hand just to be sure it worked. Hell, you can never be too sure around Gear, even if they *are* ice cubed. 

With all these inactive Gears around, this place was practically throwing out free bounties.

Jeremy scanned the area around him This place is a fucking treasure trove. "Now where the bloody fuck is Dizzy…"

Obviously, Gears here go into crystals so….

Ah-ha signaled Colt's noticing of the Crystal positioned above the destroyed gates and steps leading up to nowhere. Inside was a woman. With wings….and a tail. Colt expected himself to feel rather pleased, but a frown-incited snort took place on his face instead while walking towards his 'prize'

"Bitch, I'm going to kick your ass for making me go out in the rain for you" The rain across his back wound was making him irritated to hell.

Ah yes, just me, her and this shitty excuse for a quiet sanctu-

Wait a stitch….Quiet and battlefield doesn't mix. Wasn't there fighting up here?

"Uuuuuuuuuunghhhh….." 

Jeremy jerked his head in the direction of the moan. Lying in a bloody, tattered mess close by was Ky Kiske. Unconscious. And with Thunderseal in his hand. In the same degree of view was another unconscious figure. The metal headband on his head told Jeremy who it was.

Now, it didn't surprise Jeremy to see Sol Badguy here, considering his career mostly consisted of Gear kills. But seeing the #1 world-class hunter here along with Ky, both with the living shit beat out of him, that was really scary, and whoever ass-raped those two is still here…

A voice came from behind. A synthesized one.

"Human, you tread on sacred ground. You must realize your fate, being here"

Jeremy flew around in a standing 180 to face whatever it was behind him, gun first. It was then that Colt's eyes widened to the sizes relative to dinner plates.

Holy……fucking……shit…..

Jeremy fell onto his but from the shock, "HOLY FUCKING SHIT! YOU SHOULD BE DEAD!"

Justice made a noise that one could call chuckling as he looked down at Colt, "The human desire to make its momentary life on this world even shorter is the cause of my return"

Overcoming the mandatory surprise, Colt returned to standing when most obvious realization finally hit him, "So *you* kidnapped Dizzy……"

"The child's destiny is to fight for our purpose"

Jeremy raised an eyebrow (for some strange reason, he felt unusually calm), "Excuse me, but Dizzy looks anything *but* a little kid-"

"She is none of your concern, human. What is your purpose of being here?"

Why, for Dizzy of course, why else am I here?

But you only chase here because she could be powerful enough to remove your curse…. But Justice here, the chance of removal from him is even higher… It's practically impossible to still retain your damnation after-

"Answer me, human! Why are you here?"

Bloody hell! Your chance for freedom! Answer him!

Jeremy simply raised his weapon at the Gear king and fired a single shot, causing a spark to appear on the blue head plate device, but nothing else.

"Does that answer your question?"

 Justice jetted steam out of the back before preparing himself for combat, "You are foolish to try and conquer me"

Colt sneered and waved his hands towards himself in a mocking fashion, "Bring it on, Justy! I'll kick your sorry tin can ass"

All right, let's see. He's missing an arm and he probably can still kick ass without it. He got a huge gash in his side, leading to internal organs. Let's see if I'm still a crack shot Jeremy aimed for the gash lining Justice's lower torso bit, but Hitler-Gear saw the attack coming a fair distance off, making Justice rotate his body into a blur and disappeared.

Jeremy snorted in annoyance, "Geh, guess I'm not" before quickly dashing up the stairs, deciding that the stairway to nowhere would offer Colt a vantage point in view. Running up the stairs he then felt a rather familiar nagging in the back of his head.

Something coming from…behind? Shit.

Outta the way…now.

Jeremy then flipped to one side of the staircase, but too late. Justice's body tackle was far too fast to merely dodge. While Jeremy's body was suspended in the air to one side, the attack smashed into the back of Colt's legs, throwing Dizzy's poor stalker off course and away from the stairs in a pathetic twirling effect. Landing, Jeremy found his weapon a meter or so away from him. Scrambling to his feet, he launched his body towards the gun in an attempt to save it, but ended up landing in front Hitler-Gear's metal foot, in which was heavily placed on what was Jeremy's gun.

"How can you afford to 'combat' me now, human?"

Why is it I have to do this all the time? "I'll show you…" Jeremy snapped his fingers, causing a large, purple psychic blade to sprout out from underneath the Gear King, threatening to cleave the latter in two, or at least do something very painful. Justice gave out a sound that could be interpreted into surprise and leaned back, letting the blade pass his legs and in front of his body. Justice them emitted a growl a launched his right foot into a kick, carrying Jeremy at the bottom, through the air as well as a few of the thinner marble and stone ruins. Colt came to stop as he got well nestled into one taller statues, clenching his teeth heavily. Feeling like something at 60 mph kicked you tends to do that to people.

Can't move… hurt too much…everywhere

Justice peered at the purple element before it misted away like fine smoke. He then turned to the green figure buried in the stone structure.

"I am surprised that you hold such gifts. You are not human, you?"

Jesus, he sounds like he's little kid.

Jeremy shouted back, "I am so fucking human! 80 percent water, 20 percent meat, and 16 percent brainpower! BITCH!" 

Colt raised an arm into the air and flung his arm out at the whitish figure below. Colt's fingers stretched and elongated into five sharp rods, which lanced out towards Justice in an attempt to impale the Gear again. The target though, merely swung his arm to one side and smashed the projectiles away. The counter attack flew towards the statue in form of a glowing ball of golden hued energy. The nitro bomb impacted into the structure, causing the entire thing the blow up and the little green figure on it to fly away with the shrapnel. The shrapnel itself though, decided to smash itself countless times into Jeremy's back while he was flying ungracefully through the air. A heavy landing on the back incited an "AW FUCK!" in pain from Colt.

"How could you possibly think you could defeat me?" Justice cried out to the human struggling up.

"Fuck, just shut up…" Colt then flung himself at the Hitler-Gear in his last attempt to put a hole in Justice with his wrist blade that snapped out in mid-flight. Justice simply just swung his only arm outwards again. The action this time incited a wave of energy, colored of a blue hue, to be released. The Michael Sword smashed into Jeremy reversing his flight to be away from the Gear, and along the ground. Colt came to rest at the base of another statue. He breathed shallowly, and the clothes were colored in black from the dried blood the stuck to wounds everywhere. He felt different though; he wasn't as pained as before, more like really numb. He grew weaker by the second. No need to guess what was going on.

I'm going to die….

**************************

The human was chuckling at its own death. Like if it were all a joke. Shouldn't humans fear for their destruction?

"So…..this is how my story ends…." He whispered between his shuddering of laughter.

"That is how all of humanity's story will end. Your kind must be destroyed"

The laughing stopped. Silence.

"Just one question, its been bugging me for a while…..Why?"

"Why?"

"I mean your quest for our death. Why?"

"Why? You humans created us to be mere weapons…created only to kill, I am merely following that order"

"That is such a bad excuse…"

"What!?"

"I mean…. a Gear is nothing more than mindless weapon to be wielded by us…. I don't see you acting mindless. So… the moment you decided to be… more than what you were… you stopped being a… Gear. You became something… else…. So, your excuse is a bad one…. You destroy…. your ex-masters…. because… you want to be…free…. how selfish…."

The human's head suddenly fell onto one of his shoulders. He is unconscious now. He has interesting gifts…. perhaps if I research into his abilities further…. it will greatly contribute to our cause.

Wait! Footsteps coming! Light, the shoes make noises. Somebody comes. Hide.

And so Justice elevated his body to a suitable height of the ground. Waiting for whoever is coming. Perhaps to try and destroy me too.

*********************************

I float in a void of red.

Where am I?

I hear…. conversation…men…

Scientists?

"Subject…Test…. Psychokinetic…Gifts…. Enhance…Powers…Defeat…. Nazi…. Regime…. Protect…. Humanity…"

I can't move now…. Tight…. must…ESCAPE!

Struggling…

They…laugh?

Machine arms come out. Each tipped with needles and knives and drills.

They stab me. Inject me with something black.

PAIN!!!!!!  
  
PAIN!!!!!  
  
PAIN!!!!!

I turn black…. I feel cold…. numb…. one of the knives carve a word into my chest….what does it say?

'Damned'

They…. cursed me?

I fall now…. I hit the ground…pain…can't live like this…

Light…. someone comes….

I look and see…

An angel…She has heard my plight…. In her hands she carries a large blade…

Give me the blade! NOW! I need it!

She smiles gently and shakes her head…

Why!

_I will give you your blade…but not yet…_

Why! You are here to give me the blade!__

_Not yet…you have yet to complete your purpose…_

Purpose? What purpose?

_You will _see_ one day…_

She floats away. I do not chase. I cannot catch up, I know.

So…She leaves me here, damned….

I get up and walk, despite the immense pain.

Fuck her. I'll find the blade myself

So I walk damned, a symbol of all things wrong, forged by man's greedy will to be more than it needs to be.

A child of sin.

*************************

"AUUGH!!" Jeremy woke up rather startled.

Damnit. Breathe in, breathe out.

The exercise worked, and Jeremy had completely calmed down. Looking around, he saw that the place looked a little more wrecked than he last saw it. Looks like Justice had some extra visitors while I was asleep. Bastard, can't even kill a regular human. Jeremy then noted a major difference in the battlefield. Nobody else was here, other than him. Ky was gone, Sol was gone. Justy was gone.

Fuck, even Dizzy was gone; her ice prison was broken into bits and pieces and scattered across the area.

Well, obviously Justice is dead. If he did run away, Dizzy would still be inside that crystal thingy of hers, rather than it being all over the place. Also, since Justy hates humans so very much, he would probably leave them here when he runs away, or at least, leave some burning corpse of them.

Well shit, Justice is dead. Again.

Dick.

Well, back to chasing those Jellyfish. Gotta make sure they still have their little Gear.

And wasn't I half dead?

True, the previous wounds didn't hurt now, more like an irritating sore throb. Jeremy felt the gash across his back. Bandaged.

Who the fuck bandaged his cuts and saved his life? Jeremy then noticed there was something taped to the brim of his hat. He tore of the section of paper attached and read the little scrawling across it.

"Compliments, Your friendly neighborhood Doctor Faust"

Colt crushed the paper in his hand as best he could.

"FUCKING SAMARITANS!" Jeremy eased himself out of his sitting position at the base of the statue, "They aught to be shot. Fuck, I'll shot that little bastard if I ever see him"

Damnit, I don't have gun with me now. Shit.

Jeremy let the little black cloud float around his head as he shoved his hand into his pant pockets and walked away from the roof of the tower. It wasn't raining now, and the night was falling.

Fuck this, I'm going to have a vacation.


	6. Lost Paradise' or 'Paradise Lost?

A few quiet months had passed since Jeremy had his ass handed to him by Justice. The wounds healed up nicely, and he managed to find some thread to piece his clothing together. Of course, it wasn't his only clothing, but green was his color, and nobody should have any clothes just left in tattered pieces. So, far Jeremy's vacation was in full blast. There he was, in that small room of his, the fireplace crackling nicely, the radio regularly spewing P.W.A.B movement reports, and the man himself, nestled all nice and happy in that big velvet thing he called a chair, knitting a scarf like an old lady.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's was acting like a pussy, knitting. But fuck, where he was, one couldn't find to many things to do. Besides, it was one of the things Jeremy actually liked that didn't need fighting, drinking, or brooding.

"Subject J, Subject M, S.subject D leaving 4335,7902,2310. Currently heading east…" 

Jeremy stopped his little project momentarily to stick another pin into the map placed on the wall beside him. He maybe on holiday, but he still had to keep tracks of those 'pirates' (Are they really pirates? Stories about them put those guys in a 'Robin Hood' sort of light. Those kinds that ends up dieing horrendously. Well, you know what they say about nice guys…)

 "Subject J, Subject M, S.subject D leaving 5592,6923, 8362. Currently heading east…"

Jeremy swore quietly under his breath. Between him and putting the pins in the damn map, he'd never get the scarf finished. He nearly put the pin in the map when he noticed where the trail of pins was headed. They were going straight over the Mediterranean…. no fucking way….

"Noooooooo….." Colt then began walk to a section of the wall beside the fireplace. He then pushed open the door that was covered in shadows there. Inside was another room, it was there that Jeremy began to navigate through a twisted mess of rooms and hallways, either half destroyed or half flooded (It depended on how high up you were) and smelled…. 'Musty' would be the best way to describe it. Eventually he found himself jogging up a steep set of stairs (oh look, he actually started working out!). The wooden steps headed up into an expanse that once held a set of bells. It was now Jeremy's personal observatory. The telescope of course, had to be stolen to achieve the distance of sight Jeremy decided was best to defend his city. Well, not really his, it was really more a half flooded ruins of a city in the most nowhere place of the Mediterranean that he decided to move into one day. Colt swung around the large device and began to peer through the lens, towards the east.

Well fuck, there they are. The Mayship was floating over the horizon coming in the direction of the flooded city. The Jellyfish would be flying directly over the city in a few hours.

Well, there went his vacation.

Colt grumbled in an annoyed fashion before walking down the stair, planning.

What the bloody fuck can I do to get those guys down here? Shooting them would land them, but they would stay inside the ship to defend against attackers.

Wait. They're Robin Hoods, defend the innocents and shit… I could lure them here using….

Colt grinned to himself before running into the dark hallways of the half flooded city. He knew those would be useful one day.

This was *the* day, Jeremy knew it, right deep down into his soul. If he was going to meet her, he might as well be dressed in his Sunday best.

************************

"Damn, that was a lot of work" 

An hour or so later, Jeremy's trap was ready to be sprung. The man himself (dressed in his 'Sunday best') was perched on a roof hidden out of the way and in the shadows. It gave him a perfect view of the incoming vehicle while he remained safe from view. Slung across his back was an AWP, whatever that meant, but it was still a good sniper rifle. Unfortunately, rifle ammunition was like dinosaurs, except Jeremy had one left.

The roaring of the engines was even loader now.

Colt grinned Show time.

Wires? Check.

Gun? Duh.

Colt placed his palms on top of the metal bar.

5…..

4…..

3….

2….

1….

Continuing his grin, Jeremy smashed the down the neck of the plunger into the rest of the body.

***********************

"Johnny, There's a large explosion from below!"

The captain walked over to a monitor controlled by his second in command, "Where?"

"In the center of that city below us" May pointed to the interlocked mess of green roofed structures on the screen, the largest of them showing a large hole and think smoke pouring out of it. Dizzy's voice called out.

"Somebody could be hurt down there"

A moment of thought came from Johnny before deciding, "Possibly, I'm going to check it out. May, take over while I'm gone"

"Okay"

Johnny grabbed his Zatoichi blade propped against the back wall of the bridge and left the room.

************************

Jeremy watched through the scope of his rifle a smaller form drop the Mayship. Landed on his planned roof perfectly, three figures came out of the vehicle. Through his scope, Colt saw that one was that looked remarkably like a cowboy, a girl he never saw before and *her*. Jeremy made a 'hmph' noise to himself in amusement.

So, today's the day. And it had to be during his holiday.

*************************

"Dizzy, April, remember to stay behind me" two 'okay's echoed back to the captain. The other two volunteered to come, and the captain supposed it didn't hurt too much to let them come along to a simple search. Johnny glanced around the rooftop. A stone bridge connected their roof to another, and that one to the next, creating a vast network in connected roofs and towers. Some of the ruins of bridges remained on either side of buildings supposed to be connected.

"Alright, let's go check out that blast site" Johnny announced to the rest of the party, with sounds of agreement following.

*************************

So far, so good Colt continued spying on the figures. They were taking the route he planned for them, not trying to jump any broken bridges, and heading directly towards the blast site, which would have them go up a set of stairs.

The Cowboy looks to be the toughest of the bunch….. I suppose I could trap them, shoot him in the head from here, and then meet her. Alright.

There they go, up that long line of stairs that takes them a few stories up. Jeremy inserted a new cable into plunger box and watched them head up the stairs and onto the roof of the blown up building before looking down at the several wooden boxes stuffed underneath the stone steps. Showtime.

5….

4…..

3….

2….

1….

Colt smashed the metal bar into the body again. Nothing.

"What the fuck?" Colt lifted the neck up again and pushed it down again. Nothing.

Jeremy started to vigorously lifted and pushed down on the plunger neck, hopelessly expecting the second detonation.

"Fuck, not now…." Jeremy could see them continuing to look around, but how much longer? 

Oh, fuck this. Colt pulled the rifle off his back

*****************************

The pirates spun back to the sound of the second blast and saw the large staircase they just traveled on, explode into a cloud of debris before the remains fell into the water below. Johnny gritted his teeth in frustration.

"Darn it…." The captain then spoke back to his crewmembers, "Careful, people. It's a trap"

"Oh, I wouldn't really call it a trap…" came a voice that didn't belong to the group. Turning around, the pirates saw a figure scaling the side of an adjacent structure, before hopping onto same roof as the others.

"…. I would call it, a kind invitation, and that I enjoyed your company so much that I insist that you stay here for a bit longer"

The man was dressed in a completely green-hued attire. Mounted upon his head was a pointed hat that reminded Johnny and the others of a certain guitar-wielding woman they met earlier. In one of his gloved hands was a rifle that was pouring smoke out of its barrel. He wore a cape that was eerily familiar to the cape fashion of a Holy Knight, except it was dyed green instead of the regular white and blue. Furthering the illusion of the man being a knight was the large, double strap belt he wore. Carved into the steel of the large gray buckle were lines that traced out the word 'dream'.

Johnny's free hand neared the handle of his weapon cautiously, "Who are you?"

"Jeremy Colt. No current occupation"

Dizzy's voice came up quiet surprise.

"You…."

Jeremy smiled at the word, "Ah, so you remember me, Dizzy"

April turned her head at the Gear, with a confused look, "You know this guy?"

A nod from the quarry, "Yes, he has been chasing me, even though the bounty has been lifted…."

Pirate King spoke up, glaring suspiciously at the smiling man the entire time, "Alright then, what do you want with her?"

Jeremy shrugged, "Oh nothing really, just slice her up into bits and pieces, beat her to death. Torture her, screams of terror and pain. Such and such"

The pirates stepped back away from the one who just made himself sound like a lunatic. Johnny then spoke up again.

"I hope you really don't mean that, otherwise, you aren't going anywhere near her" The captain now had his free hand firmly gripped on the handle of the Zatoichi.

"Well, that's for you to decide, but we can do this my way, or the way where you'll end up DEAD"

"We'll take that chance", Johnny then addressed his comrades, "Dizzy, April, try to find a way back to the drop ship, I'll handle him"

Reluctant nods before the two decided to climb up the ruins of another building, which has since toppled over to rest its weight on the current field of impending battle.

Colt snorted, "Look cowboy, last chance. You let me get Dizzy, and I'll let you walk from here"

"No"

Colt then gave the 'oh well' shrug, "Okay then" Jeremy then raised the scoped rifle at the captain, who tensed up immediately for the barrage of ammo.

"Normally, I'd shoot you in the head now, but…" Jeremy raised the barrel into the air and pulled back on a lever, letting a spent cylinder fall out.

"…. I ran out of bullets" He then grabbed the weapon on both ends and threw the device at the pirate. Johnny easily knocked away the attack before facing a charging Colt.

Colt wasn't sure what happened next, first he was dashing towards his enemy, and then he ended flying through the air with his chest in two pieces while the cowboy re-sheathed his blade. Jeremy managed to roll out of the impact and back onto his feet before talking.

"Okay that was scary, I heard you were fast, but this……"

"Hey buddy, if you can't fight me, you better just walk away from this yourself"

"I said *it* was scary, not you invincible" Colt then flicked his wrist sharply at Johnny, of which actions caused a purple spear tipped cable to fire out of Colt's sleeve. Johnny himself, managed to look surprised before having the dodge the attempt of impalement.

"What the…"

"Hey, I don't need to get close to you to kick your ass" said Jeremy causally, while the cable misted away into fine purple smoke. Colt swung out his hand again, this time all his fingers converting into the same weapons before firing out at the 'cowboy'. The cowboy himself though, flew upwards and over the attack while swooping over at Colt, secretly charging magic into his blade. Jeremy counter attacked such movement, by firing out a large, paper-thin whip-blade at Johnny above. The attack struck at the pirate's side while he swiped his weapon down at Colt, causing a pillar of flame to fall onto him.

Johnny landed back onto the earth before staggering a few seconds to adjust to the gaping slash across his side.

"You know, you should really wear a Kevlar shirt or something, cowboy. It'd make you a bit safer" The flaming pillar receded to reveal Jeremy with bits of black char all over his body. Two large purple wrist blades appeared on both sides of his arms then, before Jeremy flew forward in an attempt to clip Johnny's head off his shoulders in a scissor fashion. The captain easily defended by throwing out a heavy gold coin, of which it smashed into Jeremy's face, making him close the scissor formation prematurely in recoil. It didn't get Johnny's head, but it did score another large gash on the pirate's chest. Both stumbled a back for some breathing space before Jeremy lashed downwards once more with his weapon, with Johnny knocking away the attack with his own blade. The two ended up in a complex sequence of swordplay.

Dude! I thought we were going to play a long range game with this dick!

"I'm such an idiot!" Colt jumped away from the swordplay, once again flicking his wrists again, releasing a frightening amount of thin whip blades out of his sleeves and at the Pirate King. Almost predictably, Johnny leaped through he air again to perform that amazing fire pillar trick of his again.

Jeremy snorted and snapped his fingers at the ground in front of the flying pirate.

The giant psychic blade that sprung its way out of the ground in front of Johnny, making him crash heavily (and painfully) against the weapon and interfering with his attack. As the Pirate was falling back down to earth, Jeremy sneered and reared back his hands as he prepared to do one of his more 'advanced tricks'. Jeremy lashed out once more at his opponent. This time, three large cables flew out of his back at amazing speed, each tip with a flame hued the same color as all his other weapons. All three cables hit Johnny with great speed, the psychic 'flames' leaving its legacy behind in the form of it burning brightly on the pirate for a few second while he flew away from impact.

"Oi! I ain't done with you yet!" a thinner cable, compared to the last attack quickly made its way to Johnny before he got to far away and wrapped itself around the pirate's neck. Tight.

Jeremy grabbed the cable with both hand and swung as hard as he could over his head. The rest of the cable soon followed the action with Johnny moving in an arc over Colt. The pirate ended up landing head first into the green tiling of the roof they were on. The force of the impact kicked up a cloud of debris. Settling, the cloud revealed a non-moving form, obviously to beat out to do anymore threat to Colt.

Jeremy wiped a bit of blood and sweat collecting over one eyelid, "Well, that's one down"

Really?

To make sure, or not to make sure.

It's kind of brutal if you did.

Oh hell, just do it.

Walking over to the pirate's side, Jeremy delivered as much force as he could into a brutal soccer kick into the pirate's head. 

Still unmoving. Okay.

"Well, I'm honestly sorry I'd had to end up this way, mista cowboy. If we had met in different circumstances, we might have ended up being good friends…. Yeah right…" Jeremy spoke down at the unconscious figure, before muttering the last two words to himself.

Damn, that guy sure packed a sword swing, and that flame trick. Really freaky. Jeremy thought such thoughts to himself while wincing at the chest wound. Those burns sucked too.

"Anyways, I got to go run my blade through that sexy little number of a Gear now, so chow!"

Jeremy gave a mock salute before giving pursuit to the two remaining crewmembers of the Jellyfish who were running lost amongst the ruins of the lost paradise.


	7. The Final Obstacle Before Your Prize

The next thing Johnny remembered was that he had a simultaneous headache and backache. Even with his eyes firmly shut to block out the sun, whose heat was pressed against his shut lid, the comfortable bed told him that he was somewhere safe, and the only safe place here was in the Mayship.

"June, my shades please"

Hidden hands instantly placed the plastic object into his hands. Fitting his all important esteem-boosting device back into its rightful place, Johnny finally saw the current makeshift nurse by his side.

"What happened?"

"We saw the fight, and as soon as we could, we sent a team down there to help. May's leading the group" Johnny's eyes instantly became alert with fear.

"God no! I have to get back down there!" The captain immediately tried to rise up, but then felt the overwhelming rush of pain stop him from anything else. June also quickly came and pressed her commander down back into the bed.

"Captain, Please! You have to rest, you just came to only a short while after the fight!"

"We can't leave them there like that!"

"I know! But you can't do much either like this!

"Then what am I supposed to do like this!?" Johnny shouted in pure frustration.

"Do what you can with this ship" June answered before continuing with a quieter air of the same frustration "… and… pray"

****************************

"God Damnit! Slow down you bitches!" Jeremy's voice yelled down the corridor and meeting with Dizzy's and June's ears. The voice only made the two run with as much effort as they could muster up again. The pirates soon reached the end of the corridor, which met them with a bright light. Dizzy and April stopped only a few second to look around the large chamber.

The room was shaped in a long rectangle, with most of the floor and walls sunk downwards and into a pool of water that consumed almost all of the room, save where the two stood. Wooden bleachers could still be seen rooting in the pool in rows on either side of the chamber. Taking up the un-flooded section was a large rectangular structure used as an altar. Decorating the near wall was a large stained glass window, the design showing a naked, humiliated, human God being hung on a cross. On the other end of the room was another entrance to an unknown dark. April started up first, and grabbed Dizzy by the wrist before pulling her towards the adjacent darkness.

"C'mon, let's move!"

Jeremy's voice was much louder now. "You're going nowhere!"

As soon as the two pirates reached the darkness, April saw something out of the corner of her eye. An object attached to a wall. It was a circular shape, and chains were attached to it. April followed the chains with eyes and saw they were connected to…

April stopped running and ran towards the metal wheel and began to pull at it.

"Give me a hand here, Dizzy!" with their combined effort, the rusty mechanism was worked free and the chains released the tension they held. The sound of metal grinding against stone sounded out.

"No, no, no! Don't you close that fucking door! Don't you-"

The sliding steel plate smashed against the other side of the entrance, closing the entrance and Colt off from the pirates. He could still be heard from he other side.

"DAMNIT!"

*****************************

May heard the scream down the hall, and immediately hoisted her weapon back onto her shoulder rushed towards the source of the noise. She needed to save Dizzy and April and show that freak some pain for messing with her Johnny. Unfortunately she was going solo at this moment since her team split up to cover more ground. Dashing down the corridor, May suddenly found her inside the same chapel like room the others were. Jeremy was seen at the other end, trying to pry a large metal door open with a long purple rod.

May took no chance and flew towards Colt, swinging out her anchor out Jeremy. Colt had sensed the attack quickly enough and jumped backwards to narrowly avoid the weapon.

"What the fuck's up your ass!?" Colt growled at the Co-captain.

"Leave Dizzy alone!"

"And who the fuck do you think you are? My momma?"

May coldly said her sentence again. "Leave. Dizzy. Alone"

"Hey, I don't have time for games. Fuck off, before I make you fuck off!" Jeremy wrapped an arm around his body in preparation of combat. May charged first.

"NO!"

"Fine, get your ass kicked"

May again swung her anchor in a straight line across, and Jeremy mimicked the motion in the opposite direction with a thinner wrist blade of his own. The two weapons clashed and emitted sparks of static from each other. Colt though, kept using the momentum to spin in a full circle to meet May again with the same attack, where this time she blocked. Colt was then about to swing downwards when May took the chance and launched her entire body across the ground and into Jeremy's ankles, anchor first. He easily tripped over the anchor and fell to the stone floor, giving May another quick break.

Colt got back up just in time to see May purposely smash her weapon into the ground. The action caused a wave a 'water' to rise up out of nowhere and a hoop of some sort appear out of the air. Jeremy was new to these sorts of things.

"What the hell?"

Suddenly out of the hoops came a large aquatic animal, which dove at Colt. He quickly smashed the large fish (or whatever it was, Jeremy was never sure) out of the way with the wrist blade and charged under the hoop and towards May like an angry bull. May didn't expect him to escape the trap so quickly and was open to a full body tackle into abdomen. Jeremy wrapped his arms around the pirate and carried her towards the wall on the other end of the room.

With all his force, Colt smashed May into the hard stone barrier and drew back to punch her hard across the face. May returned a harder punch with her free arm into Jeremy's gut making him stagger back to clutch the pained area.

"Damn, that's one hell of a left hook"

May said nothing and placed both hands onto the ringed section of the anchor and began to spin around in a circle towards Jeremy, with the anchor on the outside of spins. Jeremy quickly 'uh-oh'ed and backed away from the spinning flurry of metal and flesh in hopes of quickly forming a counter attack. One came to mind and he again snapped his fingers at the ground, making a large psychic blade fly off his back, down into stone, where it curved upwards under the floor to burst out of it to smash directly under May. The large spike lifted her off the ground and into the air, where Colt made use of that factor to fling out a more rope like from of psychic energy at the helpless co-captain. The 'rope' wrapped around May's neck and Jeremy pulled hard and flung May into the large dark pool of water at the other side of the sunken room.

May disappeared into the dark of the room, with the sound of a splash of water confirmed that she fell into the pool.

Ha! If she wants to get out of that, she'll have to drop the anchor. Hands down win for me after that. Jeremy smirked and waited for the Pirate to reemerge from the water. The water exploded again as a soaking wet May flew out of the water, with her on the back of one of her marine friends. The whole mess of animal and pirate crashed into Colt and transferred the 'flying' part of the May into her target, making him fly across and over the altar and stop under the stain glass window.

"Okay…that hurt… I think we should agree that we should really try to kill each other now, instead of playing around…" 

Jeremy got back up and jumped onto the altar table, May taking the chance and sweeping her weapon across the surface. A perfectly timed hop landed Colt on the anchor, trapping it between his feet and the altar. A purple rod formed in a mid swing and Jeremy brought it across May's temple area. The pirate shrieked in pain and brought one of her arms to blindly grasp the immense pain. Colt hopped off his perch and landed into a roll and continued the momentum into a sharp kick, making May stumble backwards. Jeremy punched into May's hand and smashed against her face again.

Hey! This is fun! Jeremy smirked and back handed May across the other side of her head. May soon was consumed by a mass of backhands, punches, swings and every variation of a punch, all precision aimed and hit perfectly at her head and chest. Colt finished with a hard kick to May's solar plexus, launching her into a wall, where she sunk down, winded.

Jeremy snorted at the sight of the pirate struggling to get back to her feet. When she got to her hands and knees, Jeremy stepped forward into a soccer kick and caught under the jaw. The force flipped her back to her feet made her stumble backwards, and Jeremy again capitalized and swung out his leg again, smashing into her neck and trapping her between Colt's foot and the same wall behind her.

Colt growled at May and pressed against her throat, making her wheeze and gag a bit

 "Give it up, bitch. You lost" But in Jeremy's confidence he forgot the simplest detail: May was still holding her anchor, which was being held limply at her side.

May opened her un-bruised eye and stared at the Jeremy, though blood from a wound above made the world a shade of red. She choked out her answer as she gripped her anchor again.

"No…" and May swung the anchor into Colt's shoulder, sounding a large sickening crack. No matter how skilled a warrior is to another, human flesh and bone still can't stand up to several tons of steel flying into it.

Jeremy screamed and clutched his broken shoulder and stared back at May, and let his face flare up into the pure, animalistic rage of revenge.

"BITCH!!!!!"

Colt launched out his usable arm and let a purple coil wrap around the pirate's neck. Jeremy pulled her forward and then pulled his end of the cable around into an arc, making May fly of the ground and in a half circle towards the stain glass painting.

Jeremy let the cable free.

Like a bullet, the orange form flew into the aged colored glass and through it. Pure light bathed the room, and Jeremy narrowed his eyes at the open 'window' now, which revealed the same deep blue sky as before.

A sound of water splashing confirmed again to Colt that the pirate had finally stopped falling and laded into the sea below. Another snort from Colt.

"Ah shit, now what?"

The steel door was way too strong to be pried open by just him. But what about the window…

Jeremy walked over to the new opening and noticed a ledge running on the outside of the building. It probably winded around the building and under other windows.

Probably. What the fuck am I saying? Of course it goes under other windows. Start chasing Dizzy again.

**********************************

The only corridor that lead out of the chapel that wasn't destroyed lead to a dead end.

Dizzy and April stood tired in the open wind. The two were situated on a roof with railings on top to form makeshift balcony. The entire structure protruded out of the side of a tower that was far from any other buildings and faced nothing but endless sea. One corner of the roof was taken up by scaffolding and construction material. The only entrance out of the balcony lead back to the chapel.

All in all, they were completely trapped by a Colt and a sea.

April looked beside to see Dizzy's sad eyes. The decision between them was forced.

They would have to fight.


	8. Victory?

Jeremy had been scaling the perimeter of the tower until he found a small window that he presumed to be on the other side of the steel door. For the past while he had been trying to kick the window in. So far no such luck, and it was beginning to rain hard.

"C'mon you bitch, open up" The broken arm was also starting to hurt like the liked named bitch as well.

"Come ON. I can't wait all day to get her" Under the magic words, the last kick from Colt had broken the lock sealing the window together, opening inwards into the dark hallway. Jeremy jumped inside and looked down the dark expanse that called itself a corridor. Memory on this place was generally foggy, as Colt didn't really go up the tower often. Still, if he remembered, there was only one real hallway that leads to anywhere. Jeremy looked up a dark staircase in silent thought before quickly pacing up the passage and to Dizzy.

A quick kick to the closed door at the end of the passage blew it open and revealed the open balcony and Dizzy on the far end of the structure. Jeremy gave a wide grin despite the fact he felt like shit kicked around.

"Ah, Dizzy! Judgment day is at hand!" Jeremy cheerfully cried out and began to walk out onto the balcony towards the Gear with an open arm, while she backed away from the greeting.

Her eyes, for a split second, looked at something behind Colt's shoulders before looking back at the man himself. A split second was enough to tell Colt.

INCOMING FROM BEHIND! Jeremy felt an attack charging towards his back. He swiveled around to meet a metal bar, which he caught with his free arm. April was wide-eyed for a second trying to figure out how her trap had failed.

Must've gotten the bar from the construction shit in the corner Colt decided before speaking, "Come on, I knew something was fucked up when I saw only one of you" Psychic energy then flowed down the bar and wrapped around April's wrists in a tight bind before completely materializing into a purple tentacle like anomaly, where it picked the Pirate off the ground and smashed her into wall of the tower behind her. Gear girl's cry was heard

"April!"

Jeremy snorted while calling the psychic appendage back to Colt's wrist, with April still stuck to one end, "The bitch needs to be taught some manners about sneak attacking" When April came back into range of Jeremy he smashed his foot into the gut of the pirate, making her slide back across the floor. The process went on for a little while.

"Why are you doing this!?"

"Because I want you to fight me…"

"What!?"

"Look at me!" Jeremy stretched out his arms, and upon a command, several purple roiling, twisting, elements crawled all over his body, as if it were a flame.

"This…is part of my soul that I never wanted, everyday I feel it heavy on my heart, everyday it shows my the truth that my life is nothing more that a nightmare that I will never wake up from…till today…" Colt let the coils on his body disappear, save the one on his wrist, which still had Dizzy's friend attached to

"What do you mean?"

Jeremy pointed at Dizzy with a passion. "You are a blade that is here today to end my suffering!"

"I don't understand…"

"Then understand this…" Jeremy pulled the metal bar from April's weak grasp to throw it towards the tower wall. One end smashed into the structure and let the rest of the tube stick out. Jeremy dragged April towards the wall, where he flicked his wrist and let the purple rope around her wrist wrap itself around her neck. He then swung his arm towards the bar above them, where the purple rope looped itself around. Jeremy pulled down on his end, and caused April to be lifted up her neck to a distance above the floor, gagging and coughing. Jeremy continued.

"Your friend is going to die by choking to death on my rope, unless you hit me hard enough" Colt touched his hand to his back, where the psychic appendage re-connected to the new location.

Dizzy stared with sad, determined eyes, "You leave me no choice now…"

A flash of white and Dizzy was revealed in the leather outfit again, with glowing band of energy circling by her feet, "I'm sorry I have to hurt you…"

"Please, being sorry only gets you killed in the real world"

Both charged at each other.

Jeremy started first, summoning up a wrist blade to his un-broken arm. Bending the arm against his body, Jeremy launched his whole weight into Dizzy's direction. Dizzy flew to one side of the attack before crossing her arms. The white wing changed shape into a woman. This concept was new to Jeremy.

"What the fu-" The woman snapped both her wrists downwards towards the ground underneath Jeremy, he didn't need to guess what was about to happen. He leapt backwards just in time to see a large piece of ice explode out of the ground, leaving a gaping hole after the attack.

Colt smirked, "Nice trick, I have that too"

Jeremy then snapped his fingers at the ground underneath his own opponent. Dizzy gasped and managed to leap into the air high enough to avoid the blade that threatened to slice into her from below. While she floated backwards, Colt chased after her from the ground until he flung out his hand, causing his fingers to transform and fly out into miniature harpoons. Two scored a hit, one ripped through Dizzy's shoulder and another slashing her exposed thigh. As she landed, Dizzy saw Jeremy charge towards her with fingers as purple talons this time. Dizzy again crossed her arms, causing the woman this time to gracefully release an orb towards the sky, where one side released a blade and flew towards Jeremy. Colt dodged only in time enough to let the electrified weapon strike across his side, turning more of his clothing into a sick black color. Staggering, the pain made Colt lose concentration and the element holding April to Jeremy dissipated.

"April!" Dizzy flew over Colt's head to catch April as she was about to hit the concrete floor. Dizzy held her friend across the back while she grabbed new air desperately.

"Are you alright?" Dizzy asked.

"Yeah… I live…" Was the managed reply between hoarse gasps. Both then heard a cry as Colt charged forward with a wrist blade ready to swing downwards. Dizzy narrowed her eyes in a silent command before the black wing transformed into a green, hooded figure. It drew an arm back in a motion that looked like it was shooting a bow. The motion released a spinning staff that released a blue flame on either end, creating a wheel of burning energy that lifted itself.  The attack smashed head on into Jeremy with such a force that it momentarily lifted Colt up into the air before dropping him back to the floor.

"We have to get out of here" April managed to urge her companion before both started to the open entrance. A hand grabbed Dizzy by the wing, though, and pulled her back and made her face Colt again, one side of his face bleeding heavily. Jeremy just glared before smashing Dizzy's face to one side with a strong backhand. 

"Dizzy!" Came the rather helpless cry of April.

"Just go!" Was all Dizzy could say before her head snapped to one side from left hook.

"But…"

"Go get help, April!"

A face clearly showing the pain of leaving a friend behind showed, before April disappeared into the dark of the tower.

"Okay bitch, nobody else is here. Just you, me and that shit on you back you call your bodyguards", Jeremy let a small purple rod, for clubbing purposes, appear in his hand, "Time to kung fu your ass"

Jeremy closed in on Dizzy before the hooded figure appeared again with a large battle-ax. Jeremy smashed the purple rod into one side of the figure's head, knocking it to one side long enough for Jeremy to smash the club downwards into Dizzy's shoulder. Her eyes for a second glazed over from the pain before stumbling for a second. Jeremy continued the opportunity to grab her by the bra-thing to smash her head into his, then striking her across the jaw with the pruple rod in an upwards strike. Dizzy continued to stumble away before dropping to the floor.

What the fuck? "Tremendous combat abilities my ass, you don't even know how to throw a punch!" Jeremy sneered at Dizzy before marching up to kick her. Dizzy herself was just about to get up when she suddenly fell down again, the hooded figure appearing to slam down his fist to the earth, while using his other to pull on Dizzy's tail, causing her fall. The figure's fist smashed into the ground with enough force that the shockwave passed outwards and knocked Jeremy of his feet, giving Dizzy the chance to recover and watch Jeremy rise up.

How can I beat him? As much as she didn't like the option, Necro appeared to be Dizzy's only way in keeping up with Colt. With a finality, she let her eyes glaze over and clutched her head while a spiritual form of the hooded archer cover her momentarily before revealing her body again in a cold, black aura surrounding her.

"Uh-oh" Jeremy hesitantly backed away. The new Dizzy flung out her arms and created a series of fiery explosions that traveled across the ground towards Colt.

"Holy mother fuckin…" Jeremy narrowly leaped above the explosions, before he saw Necro-Dizzy above him smashing her fist into face, making him fall back to the earth, just as the earth under him exploded. Colt was carried across the arena until he and the chain of explosions impacted into the battered tower wall, and past it, leaving a gaping hole in the structure. A twitching hand soon appeared out of the dust to hoist a very battered Jeremy.

"Holy shit shit shit shit shit shit….." How the fuck did she suddenly know how to fight like that?. With a war cry, Jeremy loosed another wrist blade, where he smashed the weapon into the neck of  Nerco-Dizzy.

"Holy shit…" With the force Jeremy used, the blade should have cleaved her head straight off her body. Instead, it was merely against her neck, with a minute amount of blood dribbling out of the wound. A dark grin came from Dizzy's face before she smashed her fist into Colt's face again, this time with a rather audible 'crack' being emitted as well. Colt stumbled away for a few seconds while feeling his nose, which was bent at an odd angle. A hard push in the opposite direction brought the bleeding nose into correct position, noted out by second 'crack' and a cry of pain. Dizzy then swung around her arm, the black wing covering the arm until it formed an immense blade that gave off a golden energy. Seeing it was coming towards himself at a fast rate, Jeremy countered with a powerful technique of his own. With a grand wave of his un-broken arm, his back released three large whip blades that flew towards the Gear, each tip of the blade was covered in a sort of psychic flame. The two attacks collided, releasing an explosion of energy that blew Colt away like a feather.

This is sucking to a degree like no other… Jeremy contemplated while lying on the ground, seeing what didn't hurt on his body, God, she's like on steroids or something Colt forced himself back up to something that could be called standing.

"Okay, bitch. You had your fun with your steroids, but time to show you that you aren't the only one who can power up…" With those words said, and a great amount of determination, he released as much psychic energy as he could, right into his body. He felt his body dematerialize into the same energy as all his weapons were constructed of, and yelled out the words he always felt best fit when he transformed.

"PSYCHO INSTALL!" 

Jeremy then disappeared into the form of a beast. The beast looked something like a purple fog, molded into figure of a man. Trapped within the confines of the shape, the fog roiled angrily, as if a storm lived inside. Completing the features were two even darker purple orbs that that seemingly floated with in the head and it served as something relatable to eyes. It's human broken arm seemed momentarily mended to normal condition, as noticed by Jeremy when he tested out his new arms momentarily.

Necro-Dizzy uncharacteristically raised an eyebrow at the new form before flying towards Colt, nails on one of her hands lengthening outwards to form a claw. As she approached the creature, it seemingly disappeared from vision, which was before something ripped across her back. The attack forced to stagger forward to prevent her from falling. Dizzy then turned around to meet the creature just as started rising from a pool of purple, before completely reforming into the shape of a man. Dizzy punched Colt hard in the face, making twist to one side. Jeremy shook his head for a few seconds to clear some cobwebs before turning and returning the attack at Dizzy, who had her head snap in a direction as well.

Colt gave of a war cry like sound before smashing his shoulder into Dizzy's gut and wrapping his arm around her, with intent of carrying her into the wall. Dizzy, with a rather strange calmness let her finger nails elongate again before she stabbed her entire hand into Colt's back. The attack seemingly went through his entire body, which felt like dough or putty. Jeremy let out gasp of shock and let go of Dizzy, while he let his upper body sag over his legs. Necro-Dizzy cautiously removed her fingers from the creatures back. Colt then sprung to life and suddenly trapped Dizzy helplessly in a series of fisticuffs that rained wherever Colt could see.

A pain then suddenly gripped the Gear's hear as she was in the middle of defending. She gasped at the pain and the realization of what was happening. This was as far as Necro could go in commanding her body without injuring her, therefore, he had to release Dizzy back into control while fighting this… thing.

"Not now…" was one of her pained gasps before Jeremy swung a kick into her side, forcing her a distance away from him. Dizzy was out of breath, under-skilled, and out of energy to keep fighting at the same rate Colt was demanding from her. Jeremy charged towards the slightly helpless Gear, while the white wing turned into a from of a woman again. Colt sidestepped past the spear of ice that exploded out of the ground, and ducked just enough the feel the bladed orb rip through his back and crash into the ground behind him, and kept charging regardless. Dizzy, in a final defense ducked down low and let the hooded figure emerge to swing down on Colt with a large ax. Colt just rushed past it and tackled into Dizzy, knocking both of them to the ground.

"Graaagh!" the beast clutched it heart in the same pain Dizzy earlier had. Its time was up, any longer and he'll start dying. The storm burned away, off Colt's body to reveal a man once more, albeit slightly more beat up than Dizzy last saw him. Jeremy then got up and stood up his opponent likewise. Holding onto the fabric on Dizzy's shoulder, Jeremy backhanded Dizzy, before the hooded figure suddenly appeared and grabbed Colt by the head. The next thing he could feel was several object ripping into his flesh on multiple areas of his body. The figure then unceremoniously dropped Jeremy to the ground.

"I'm…. sorry…."

Jeremy raised his head to glare at Dizzy, "Sorry? Saying that only gets you killed, and this fight isn't over either…" Colt made a stabbing motion into the ground beside, which made a smaller whip blade fly out of the ground again, and this time flew through Dizzy's arm. From shock of pain, her eyes widened.

The balcony they were on began to groan from stress. The combat had damaged the Balconey, and also roof they were on. And could no longer hold the mere weight of two people.

"Oh, shit"

The balcony caved in and both fell into the depths of the room underneath.

*************************

"Ow" 

Jeremy tested out the word. Him saying 'ow' meant he's was still alive. The fact that rain was falling on his face, meant it hasn't been to long after the fight. Where the fuck he was, was completely unknown to him. Oh yeah, his arm's still broken. Shit.

Colt looked around him. He was in a large chamber with stain glass windows taking up the walls around him. Lots of boxes, tarps and the shit like that were all around him. Lots of roof bits were all over the floor as well. Jeremy himself was lying on a large scaffold that was in the room for no apparent reason.

Where's Dizzy?

Jeremy looked around his vantage point to see a figure with wings nearby. Jeremy got up from his position and after a long while, managed to climb of the scaffold. Jeremy limped over to the fallen figure and inspected the situation.

The Gear was breathing shallowly and unconcious, both here legs were under piece of concrete, meaning she couldn't get up. Her white wing was trapped under a heavy box, mostly likely broken. She was not up for fighting.

Jeremy won.

I won… I won? Jeremy glared down at Dizzy before growling in anger.

"I won…."

************************

Something hard slapped Dizzy's face, knocking her back to the pain of real life. Everything hurt, she couldn't even open her eyes.

"Wake up bitch"

Dizzy tried moving her arms, but they were stuck under something. She opened her eyes to see the constriction, only to see Jeremy glaring down on her. He was sitting on her, pinning her arms with his knees.

"Well I'll be frank, you were the most troublesome person I ever had. Hell, even finding you was dangerous, but…", Jeremy's fingers on his left hand lengthened out into talons, "You still lost, and I promised to kill and stuff" He then reeled back his weapon, aiming for Dizzy's head. The realization quickly sunk in and for some vain reason, Dizzy suddenly started jerking her body as best she could in attempt to lose her self from her bondage, despite the maddening pain.

"Don't fight….I'll make it short…."

Dizzy was practically sobbing now.

"Please…..don't….."

"Why?"

"Not now…. My friends…."

Colt snorted, "Yeah, I had friends too, 'cept they're all dead now after trying to back stab me"

"Please…..Please……"

"Oh shut up"

Jeremy thrust his talons towards Dizzy's teary, fear gripped eyes.


	9. What normal people would call a 'conclus...

Dizzy saw the ruins called the lost paradise disappear over the horizon from the view of the Mayship's porthole. She then turned her unbandaged eye to the bed beside her, which hosted a quietly sleeping, but no less injured May. From what Dizzy heard, May had been thrown out of a window and into the sea by Jeremy. Dizzy brought thoughts back to the man himself, and pitied him.

****************************

Dizzy opened one eye to look at the purple claws that were stopped only mere centimeters from it. Jeremy's face was in a harsh glare.

"I'd kill you, but you're dead already." The claws disappeared back into fingers, and Jeremy rose off his prize.

Dizzy was confused, "You aren't… going to kill me?"

Jeremy suddenly exploded into anger and kicked an empty crate near him. "NO! I am not going to kill you, and you wanna know why? Because you were supposed to kill ME! NOT FUCKING VICE VERSA!"

"You… wanted to… die?"

"YES! When the fuck did that register in your mind!? Why the fuck else would I hunt you for more than a month to fight someone who is more powerful than me? Because people call it FUCKING SUICIDE! Do you realize how many times in my life I told myself 'Perhaps today Jeremy, perhaps you'll find somebody today who will kill you and rid me of this curse of being FUCKING IMMORTAL!' " Jeremy threw his hat to the ground with all his might.

Dizzy's eyes widened at the realization. "But that….that shouldn't be possible…"

"It was possible in 1943, America! And for the next 200 fucking years I had to deal with the fact I couldn't have friends, family, or a regular fucking human life! Hell, I couldn't even figure out anymore whether I could even be called a real human anymore! I'd rather be dead than uncertain, at least I could be sure of something…. BUT YOU STOLE THAT CHANCE AWAY FROM ME!" Seeing her head as the only real target left, Jeremy smashed his sole against Dizzy's face. Jeremy picked up his 200-year-old hat and tucked under his armpit and stormed off to an exit he noticed.

"I'm going now, good bye."

Dizzy weakly attempted to move her legs from under the restricting concrete, but no such luck. "I'm stuck!"

Jeremy turned his harsh face back at the trapped figure. "Then get out, I'm sure you almighty 'Gear Powers' will help you somehow." The entire sentence was filled with angry sarcasm. Jeremy then disappeared into the dark of the hallway.

It was later that the rescue team found Dizzy. They themselves also tried to find Jeremy as well, to make sure he doesn't try to hunt Dizzy again. But Dizzy asked them not to.

"He…won't chase me again after this…. He'll leave us alone" The others were a bit hesitant, but they left under Dizzy's advice nonetheless.

*************************

Dizzy looked back out to see the endless ocean outside the porthole I wonder if he will ever find peace…. She then buried her head further into her pillow, June had said for her to rest more, and she did feel a bit sleepy….

*************************

Jeremy was in real need of beer. It always made him feel better. He had managed to put his broken arm into a split/brace thingy, so it didn't hurt as much now, and his other wounds were also patched up nicely. But still, he had to deal with the pain now, instead of simply being….

Jeremy sagged into his chair from the self-inflicted pessimism and watched the fireplace with tired, dead eyes. No matter how many times he tried, he just seemed to have a problem of not being able to get killed. Jeremy stared down at the metal belt buckle on his waist with the word 'dream' carved into it.

I even fought in the crusades, and I still didn't die…. every man's dream can be accomplished, why isn't mine being reached as well?

"SUBJECT. IN OPTIMUM SITUATION. PREPARING. CAPTURE SEQUENCE." The voice sounded like it came through a rusty speaker.

Jeremy whirled his head around in the direction of the voice to meet a metal fist, which then propelled him of his chair and into the far wall, head first. Everything seemed to turn blurry as he collapsed to the floor.

I knew it! Somebody was watching me through all those fights! I should have guessed it was something other than me being edgy…

"SUBJECT NUMBER TWO-SEVEN-EIGHT-FOUR-FIVE. ALSO KNOWN AS. JEREMY COLT. YOU ARE UNDER ARREST BY ORDER OF THE POST WAR ADMINISTRATION BUREAU FOR THIEVERY OF OFFICAIAL POST WAR ADMINISTRATION DOCUMENTS. PROCEDING. WITH. CAPTURE." The metallic voice chimed out before advancing on the prone figure of Jeremy Colt, who simply watched the machine approach.

Ah, another challenger, another chance, another adventure…. perhaps today….

END ACT 1

INTERMISSION START

*********************

Final notes:

I already have planned a sequel of sorts, so the next act will be written in another story. Also, as so helpfully noted out by Samuraiter, I should have noted out which sections of plot belonged to which author.

The funny thing is that the Jeremy's entire adventure actually crosses more than one author's stories, KR2's DB, BS plot only being one (but only noticed his!). So I guess I should note the necessary copyrights (The 'theater' chapters are the fanfanfic chapters)

-Theater of Simple Interest (Bounty Office sequence)/ Theater of Tattered Souls (Village sequence) based of fanfic 'Simple Interest', property of author 'anjimito'

-Theater of Tattered Souls (Madrid sequence) based of fanfic 'Darkest Body, Brightest Soul', property of author 'Kaiser Ryouga 2'

-Theater of Tattered Souls (Mayship seqeunce) based of fanfic 'Tattered Souls', property of author 'Talon Silverwolf'

-Theater of Darkest Body, Brightest Soul/ Dream (Jeremy vs. Justice sequence) based of fanfic 'Darkest Body, Brightest Soul', property of author 'Kaiser Ryouga 2'

Everything else was made up by me, of course. Since you now have read all the chapters, you now know why I had to have Jeremy win all the fights, since you see what Jeremy's believes is the end result of him losing in combat (And I need to keep him alive for the entire fic and everything).

Thank you all reviewers for managing to keep my self-esteem high enough to finish this. If I had no reviews, I would waste away in misery, thinking that nobody read my fic.


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